I'm Yours
by ZacksmexyFair
Summary: Roxas was terrified when he and his family moved to a new state until he met Axel, the most fantastic guy the blond has ever met and who has lived through more traumatic experiences than Roxas has. A story full of caring, angst, sadness, love, and more. Discontinued and up for adoption
1. Chapter 1

**Lou-pie: ok, here goes my second multi-chapter story and I hope it goes well. Anyways, wish me luck and review to let me know how I'm doing and if I should keep going. If it doesn't turn out good, I'll delete it and save up some space on fan-fiction. Here we go!**

**Rating: PG-NC17**

**Pairing: Axel/Roxas for the moment in later chapters, might be more in the future.**

**Special thanks to my beta TornAngelWings.**

**Chapter 1: Spin Me**

"Oh for the love of god!" a blond, spiky haired boy shouted as he rubbed his left eye harder, the blue eye now tearing up from whatever was in it. He pulled his hand away, blinked, growled, and began rubbing his eye once again. The spot he was mercilessly rubbing was now red and wet from his tears and was beginning to hurt to the point where he didn't want to close his eye ever again. Tired of the rubbing, he made sure his fingers were clean so he could pull the damned eyelash out, touching his eyeball as he did so. He made sure to not touch the blue iris and irritate it as he ran his index finger over the white part of his eye. "Aha!" He pulled his finger away and was happy to see the small eyelash attached to it.

"That was gross," the brunette beside him mumbled, looking out the car window and gazing at the small ice covered inlet. There wasn't much to look at on the other side of the car since it was just a rock wall covered in ice and snow. Blue eyes similar to the blond's, only a shade darker, wiped the window as it began to fog up. "That's a lot of ice… at least four feet of it." He did not sound interested at all about the ice and looked down right bored.

The blond rolled his eyes and looked out the brunette's window to watch the inlet too that had a small river flowing through the ice, creating a vine like tattoo in it. His iPod had ran out of batteries since he had listened to it throughout the whole plane ride and now had to listen to the radio of the car; but it was at a station that his parents like and he didn't. Now it seemed like plane torture. There was hardly anything to look at except for the snow covered mountains they were going around, the small inlet, or the rocky wall that was part of the mountain, but was cut off to make the road they were on now.

"You boys sound bored," a female stated, looking over her shoulder from the passenger seat, revealing brown hair and blue eyes just like her sons. She soon laughed at the boy on the other side of the blond. "Except for Leon." She snickered at the sleeping boy whose head was pressed against the cold window. "Roxas, I think you left your PSP in my purse."

Roxas, the blond, who was sitting in the middle seat, perked up at this and picked up his mother's purse from the floor between his feet, looking through it and giving a small shout of glee. "Thank you mom." He sat the purse back down onto the floor and took off his shoes so he could sit on them and be in a more comfortable position while he played. The brunette that was awake was looking over Roxas' shoulder as he played, finding this more entertaining than counting icicles.

Fighting noises could be heard throughout the car from the game, waking up Leon, whose head slipped from the window and almost into his lap if it hadn't jerked him awake. A small snort came from when he jerked his head back up, blinking greys to drive away the sleep in them. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Only half an hour," the man in the driver seat replied.

"Shit."

"Leon," his mothered warned, which earned an apologetic look from the grey eyed male through the rearview window. "You can go back to sleep if you want to."

"Nah, it'll be impossible to fall asleep again." Leon yawned and slumped back against his seat, tilting his head back. "So why are we here again?"

"Hm?" the father hummed.

"Why are we here… in Alaska?"

"Well, because my job shipped me up here, saying that they needed help. Plus it gave me a reason to actually come here." The man gave a small chuckle as he rubbed his chin that was covered in a small amount of brown stubble. "I also get to complete my promise to Cid about coming up here so we could both live here like we wanted to in the past."

All three boys rolled their eyes.

"I know you boys aren't used to snow, but there's a lot to do in it," the mother piped in, smiling back at her boys. "But what we should have done was move during the summer and be prepared for this instead of waiting for the boys to finish their first semester of schooling," she almost hissed out, giving her husband a playful glare. "I'm afraid about crashing; I mean, look how fast they're telling us to go on this road and some are going faster!" Just then, a truck passed them. "See?"

"Oh hush mother," Leon said. "Dad's a great driver and the car's a four wheel drive."

His mother kept quiet, deciding to look out the window instead and watch the inlet turn into the side of a mountain. She almost wanted to faint when they passed by where an avalanche had obviously been but was cleaned up on the road. They passed by signs that said 'Avalanche area for the next twenty miles' or more. There were more spots where one had started but never reached the road and it tend to calm the brunette woman down until her husband suddenly slammed on the brakes. The others jolted forward, but their seat belts kept them from going too far.

"What the hell?" the woman yelled, glaring at her husband. She was about to shout some more when something caught her attention from outside. She looked out the windshield and saw some kind of large animal that was brown walk across the road. "What is that?"

"It's a moose, mom," Roxas grumbled, picking up his game from the floor and putting the battery back in. "It's what they like to eat here. I looked up some information about this place before we left."

"They eat _that?"_ the blue eyed brunette boy asked in disgust, watching the dumb animal cross the road quickly when people started honking their horns. Traffic started up again and the journey continued through the boonies. "Gross."

"I don't know, Sora, I hear they're pretty tasty," Leon muttered, starting to feel a little hungry now. "Don't they also eat bears too, Roxas?"

"Yeah, and caribou."

"What in Gaia's name is a caribou?" their mother asked. "Sounds funny."

"It's kinda like a moose; only they're smaller and have lighter hair. I'll point it out if we ever pass by one." Roxas sighed as he turned his game back on, a little pissed that he didn't get to save before it had turned off quite suddenly.

The rest of the road trip was quiet, except for a few conversations here and there. They spent two more hours in the car before they entered another city, not expecting to see a large building called Fred Meyers on their left with a gas station and a Taco Bell. The father sighed in relief at seeing the gas station and pulled in, giving his wife some money so she and her sons could go inside the Taco Bell and get some food. Sora was all for it, saying he was starving and ran towards the restaurant, Leon following after him.

However, Roxas was a little hesitant to step outside from the warm car, but after a few encouraging words from his mother, he finally made it to the taco place. He was shivering by the time he made it to the restaurant, wishing he had another jacket to put on instead of just wearing his one hoodie. Everyone else in this place was wearing a heavy coat, a sweater, or had already taken their jackets off. Sora and Leon were already ordering when Roxas and his mother walked in and the two had to cut in front of some of the people so the blond could order and have their mother pay for them. The people they had cut in front of weren't as annoyed anymore when they saw that the four boys and woman were together.

They found an empty spot near the back after they got their drinks and waited for their number to be called. Roxas took the time to look out the window they were sitting next to and watched cars go through the drive through, finding some of the people in the cars or trucks rather funny looking. Leon was waiting near the front so he could get the food while Sora and their mother talked, Roxas feeling a little bored. In the parking lot next to them for Fred Meyers, a couple of people were feeding a group of ravens, throwing fries or whatever out their car window.

"These people are weird," Roxas muttered.

"No better than ones back in California," Leon complemented as he sat a tray down, picking out what he had ordered. Their father crunched in next to his wife, squishing Roxas into the window, as Leon sat next to Sora.

"Whatever…"

As they continued to eat, three young teenagers had walked in, catching Roxas' eye from what they were wearing. The tallest out of the three had red and black hair that spiked back and reached his shoulders. Since his back was towards him, the blond couldn't see his face, but knew he didn't look the type of person he should hang around with just by looking at his clothing. Black hoodie, black pants, black anything; the only color he had was his skin and the red specks in his hair. His two friends were a few inches shorter and wore just as much black.

The blond on the left side of the tall boy had a hairdo that looked between a mullet and a mohawk. He too wore a black hoodie, but his jeans were dark blue and his sneakers were a crimson red with white checkers on it. His hoodie though had a bleeding rose with a few splashes of blood around it while the black/redhead's hoodie had a big skull bone with a crown tilted to one side. The blond boy shifted his weight as he order something and stepped aside to let a silver/blue haired boy order, both the blond and the tall boy waiting for him to finish.

The slate (that's a better word) haired boy, and the smallest, had a black hoodie as well, but had blue vines all over the sleeves. He too wore black jeans, only they were baggier on his smaller frame and had many pockets. His face was turned to the side to talk to his friends enough where Roxas could make out that the smaller teen had the same colored eyes as his hair, one of them covered by his bangs. He looked normal enough despite the spiked choker around his neck. His fingernails, as well as the others', were painted black.

_Either goths or emos, I can't tell,_ Roxas thought, watching the boys grab their tray of food and turn around, giving the small blond a better look at the three. He was surprised to see the tall blond was the most normal looking one out of the group with blue/green eyes while the tallest male looked the oddest.

The black/redhead teen had black all around his eyes and triangle tattoos underneath each eye, which were a bright green that Roxas had never seen, and the two fingers between the index and pinky on his left were wrapped up in black electrical tape while the index and pinky on his right were wrapped up with the same substance. Rings littered his ears, a barbell through one nostril, and two barbells on either side of his lower lip and a ring on the upper lip close to the middle. Roxas couldn't help but stare as the three teens sat in the booth in front of them, the black/redhead sitting alone and facing the blond.

At Roxas' wide eyes, Leon slowly glanced over his shoulder and gave a quick look before turning back around, his eye twitching. He stopped Sora from looking over and shook his head. Leon looked at Roxas, his face blank as the blond brother gave an 'I told you so' look. Their parents were trying to keep themselves from looking, finding the boy's look unnatural. They started a conversation to try and keep themselves occupied to keep from looking over, and it seemed to help, except for Roxas. The young blond could not stop staring at the teen and found him interesting.

Feeling a little disturbed by himself, Roxas stood up and started crawling over his parents to get out and go to the bathroom, causing his parents to yelp and bring the black/redhead's and his friends' attention towards him. He almost made it out unharmed when he slipped over his father and fell to the ground face first, making the tall teen stand up and hurry towards him with worry etched on his face.

"Shit man, are you alright?" the black/redhead asked, helping the blond to his feet. "Tell your parents to move next time, geez." The boy gave a small laugh, brushing the small blond off before going back to his seat while Roxas hurried off to the bathroom, green eyes watching the blond. His friends gave him questioning looks which he shrugged to, stuffing his face with a soft taco.

In the bathroom, Roxas was splashing his flushed face, eyes wide at what just happened. The man's smile was creepy, yet lifted the blond's spirit for the day. Hell, the guy even helped him up when he didn't have to. Taking a deep breath, Roxas went back out into the lobby and walked towards the tall teen, drawing his attention. The blond tried to keep down a blush as piercing green eyes gazed in to his cerulean ones.

"Thanks for… y'know," he uttered, looking down towards the floor and rubbing his left arm.

The black/redhead smirked. "Sure."

With that done, Roxas was back in his seat, only sitting down on the edge this time so he could have a better look at the most likely older boy. He would glance away whenever green eyes turned towards him, trying to make himself look innocent and that he wasn't just staring. The older boy's head was sitting on his hand, chewing on a black painted pinky fingernail with a raised eyebrow. Leon was giving Roxas a strange look, but kept to himself as he listened to Sora's and their parent's conversation.

The trio were done in no time and were heading back out, saying goodbye to the cashier (obviously, they were friends) before they left, leaving Roxas to his own thoughts.

LINE-BLOCKING

Roxas slumped down onto his sheetless covered bed in his new home, happy that they had sent out their stuff ahead of time and having Cid, who had the house key to the place, bring it to their new home and set the boxes inside. The man even set up a bed for each room that was going to be used; the queen bed in the master bedroom for the parents. Roxas had chosen the smallest room on the second floor since he like small spaces and didn't have that much crap anyways. A desk, that Cid made most likely made, sat on the opposite side of the room on the other side of the window while a sliding door closet was on the right side (when you walk in) of the door, a wall on the other side. His boxes littered the floor, not yet opened except for the one that held his blanket and pillow.

Rolling onto his back, Roxas looked up at the white ceiling, wondering about what color he would like to paint his room and thinking of the interesting boy he had ran into today. It was around two when they made it to Soldotna and it was now almost six. Cid had driven up to Anchorage to drop off his car so his friend and family could use it while he flew back to Kenai to have his wife pick him up at the airport. Roxas had yet to be in Kenai since their new home was in Soldotna in the woods somewhere with a few houses nearby. And Roxas couldn't help but wonder if the black/redhead boy lived in Soldotna or Kenai.

Roxas slammed his head back into the mattress, calling himself stupid for _still_ thinking about that boy. He got up and began opening some boxes, pulling out clothes, small gadgets, posters, and his laptop. He put his laptop and few of the gadgets on the desk, his clothes on his bed, and the rest of the stuff on the floor to figure out a place to put them later. A small dresser was placed inside the closet and Roxas took the time to fold and put his clothes away, hoping it would take his mind off things before putting some of his stuff on the dresser or on the window sill, thinking about getting a shelf. Since he didn't have any push pins, Roxas replaced his posters on the desk and went out to ask his mom for a sheet to put on his bed.

Grabbing a blue one from one of the boxes in the living room, he made his bed, happy that it started to look lived in at least just a little. Before long, it'll be filled with new things and all his posters would be pinned up; and he had three days to do all that before he started school along with his brother on Monday. Thinking about starting another school scared the hell out of him… he didn't know what the people like, if there were bullies, and if there were any kind of molesters in the school. The last thought was brought upon by Leon purposely just because he wanted to scare his little brother.

When seven came around, he was called down for dinner, which was pizza ordered from Big Daddy's (weird name, I know), and it tasted really good. His mother began talking about how she was going shopping tomorrow for groceries and asked if anyone wanted to come along. Roxas said he would come along just so he could go out and explore instead of being cooped up in the house with his brothers and father. He liked his brothers, sure, but his father was kind of a maniac when left at home with nothing to do… and the man didn't like shopping. Sora said he would stay home and finish unpacking while Leon stated that Cid was picking him up tomorrow to show the brunette around the auto shop and see if Leon was compatible for the job.

Dinner over, the family continued to unpack until Roxas' watch said eleven and they all went to bed. The blond couldn't fall asleep that night though; his brain wouldn't shut off and kept wondering about the school he was going to and about that interesting looking guy at Taco Bell. Mostly about the school, finding the name (Kenai Central High School) just a regular name, but the building looked pretty big in the picture he found on Google. His parents had called the school today and warned them that they would like to enroll two of their sons in. The person they had called said it was alright and said that they had to sign some kind of papers tomorrow, which they were going to do before their grocery shopping. She said Sora didn't have to be there and that she could do all the paper work herself, but Roxas wanted to do his own before his mother signed it.

With a deep sigh, Roxas rolled onto his side with his back against the wall, looking at the clock on his desk that now said eleven thirty. He wasn't feeling tired because of the time change, having to change the time back an hour, and he was too overwhelmed by everything. He would be living in a state that snowed… a lot and would have to meet new people. He didn't do well in making friends; they would have to come up to him if they wanted to be his friend. He was what you would call shy.

Letting out another sigh, Roxas got up and tip-toed across the hallway, slowly opening his brother's door. Seeing that Sora was asleep, the blond quietly made his way towards his brother's bed and slipped in without jostling him awake. He could now fall asleep by his younger brother's presence and was out in seconds.

LINE-BREAK

The grocery store was definitely… different… and small. There weren't even a lot of people wondering around. They decided to go into Kenai since his school was there and went into the first grocery store that they could find: Safeway (Carrs was its original name). The store was nice looking, though, and the cashiers seemed nice. Some of the employees looked like they were still in high school and it surprised Roxas a little; they actually looked normal too for the most part.

The school thing went well and he was amazed by the school's large entrance. After that was done, they drove down a mile or so to here since it looked promising and it still did. The isles were clean, wide… he guessed. A small cafeteria was on his left when he walked in with a deli that sold Chinese food while on the other end was where you could buy some liquor. In the middle were the isles filled with food and near one of the corners held a movie rent out place even though there was a Block Buster not too far away; it was in the same parking lot of the store even.

"Roxas, can you go find some lunch meat for me and get two of turkey and two of ham for Sora and your dad?" his mother asked as she decided on what kind of toilet paper she wanted. She thanked him when he nodded and scampered off, wondering where he should look first.

Roxas walked down each isle, feeling stupid as he did it and remembered that the lunch meat would be close to the beef and other meats, which he had just passed when he went down another isle. He back tracked until he was at the meats and followed it until he reach the lunchables, sausages, and (finally) lunch meat. There were so many different kinds that Roxas was having trouble of which one to choose, trying to find the cheapest one. When he finally picked one and grabbed for it, he heard a mocking snicker. The blond turned around to see that it was the black/redheaded boy from before, only wearing different clothing.

Today he wore a white hoodie with a giant crimson red skull and cross bones on the front, an odd looking black cross behind it. His pants were black again, only they had a blue dragon on the left front pocket, and his shoes were bright yellow converse. The black eye make-up was still there, but a few of the earrings were gone with an eyebrow barbell in his left eyebrow to replace it. The tape was still there, but the fingernails that were showing were now blue and red, and the lip ring and barbells were still attached to his face.

"What?" Roxas questioned, suddenly feeling a little nervous.

"Don't get that kind of lunch meat; you'll regret it later," the tall teen replied, moving the blond gently out of the way and grab a different brand than what Roxas was going to pick. "This is the one you want, and it comes in different flavors." He jerked his head for the blond to look, pointing at them as he continued to talk. "You got your roasted, honey roasted, peppered, and your… however you say this one." He pointed to one that said mesquite. The older teen picked that one up and handed it to Roxas. "I would get this one since it's _the _best."

"Uh, thanks," Roxas mumbled, feeling grateful that someone had decided to help him out. "What kind of cheese should I get?"

"Tillamook all the way, best cheese there is." The black/redhead boy grinned toothily, giving Roxas a feeling that the teen was friendlier than he thought. "And when you get mayonnaise; don't get miracle whip, that stuff is nasty. Get the best foods brand."

"I see; thanks."

The older boy gave a lazy salute. "Anytime."

"Now… where do I find them?"

The blond gave a small smirk when the gothic teen gave a confused look before it clicked. "Oh right. I better show you so you don't get lost." The teen smiled at the younger boy when the blond gave a dry look, but followed after him after getting another thing of turkey and two things (which looked like small containers) of ham from the same brand.

They picked up the mayonnaise first along with the mustard since it was right there, then the cheese that was at the other end of the store towards the deli. Roxas asked where the bread was and the boy led him to the other side of the isle so they were now looking at the deli. The older boy walked along the shelf that held the peanut butter, jelly, the bread he needed, and some baked goods. Roxas picked up one thing of wheat bread and one of white, making a disgusted face at the white. Just then, his mother was suddenly there, looking at the list of things she needed before looking up and was surprised to see her son there with the man from yesterday.

She saw the items held in both their arms, and gave a small smile at her son. "I see you got all the sandwich items, making things easier on me." She crossed out the items that Roxas and the stranger had as they put the items in the cart.

"Thanks for the help… um," Roxas started, but trailed off when he didn't know the stranger's name.

"Axel and you're welcome." The smile the older boy gave caused Roxas' mother to give a bigger grin of her own.

"I'm Roxas, and this is my mother, Laura."

Axel greeted Laura and asked if they needed anymore help, which the woman quickly said yes to and asked where certain items were. Axel pretty much gave the two a tour as he grabbed a few items for himself and put them in the basket he was carrying (half a gallon of milk, juice, eggs, and bread), surprising the mother; she thought he was there to buy junk food. He did put a small box of pocky (Roxas had no idea what that was) in his basket, but that was the only junk he had put in.

"And that's it," the black/redhead finished, bringing them both to the checkout isles. He let the blond and his mother go first; watching the woman's face alter into a frown at the price she had to pay after everything was checked.

"I don't remember having to pay this much back in California," Laura mumbled, ignoring the cashier's displeased face.

Axel was then suddenly next to her and was putting down his phone number down on the card swipe. The price went down about twenty dollars and Laura was almost relieved, though still a little annoyed at the price she had to pay. She thanked the teen even though she had no idea what he had done, and began putting the bags back into the cart so she could wheel it to her car. The two said good-bye to Axel while the black/redhead, who said good-bye back, was paying for his own groceries. Roxas and his mother made it to the car just as Axel walked out of the store, but walked in the opposite direction from them with his phone in one hand and two bags in the other. Not too long afterwards, a car pulled up beside him and he slipped inside.

By the time the car was gone, Laura was finished putting the food in the back seat and was now calling for her son to get in the car. Roxas obeyed and crawled into the passenger seat, buckling up and shivering a little from the coldness even though it was warm enough that it was raining a little now. The drive back home in Soldotna was long and confusing until Laura finally made it back. Sora was outside making a snowman with some silver haired boy, both smiling as they put the middle on. The brunette, though, was up on his feet and running towards the car with an excited grin. He was on Roxas the second he got out of the car, asking his brother questions about what the school looked like.

"Sora let your poor brother have some space, you know he doesn't like that," Laura chastised gently as she helped Roxas get the brunette off him. Sora pouted, making her smile and the silver haired boy, that Laura just now noticed, chuckle. "Hello."

"Hello," the stranger replied as he leaned against the unfinished snowman, not knowing that the middle ball had yet to be packed down and slid off, making the silver haired teen to fall back against the bottom snowball and crush it. He gave an embarrassed laugh as he stood back up, his butt now wet. "I'm Riku Neely, your neighbor." He pointed to the off white, one story house behind him. "My mom wanted to greet the new neighbors yesterday and today, but she's been busy with her new job."

"Oh, it's alright," Laura responded, shaking the boy's hand. "I'm Laura, Sora's and Roxas mother."

While this Riku and his mother were busy talking, Roxas was checking the boy out to see what kind of guy his brother was dealing with. Long, silver hair that reached his shoulders with long bangs that were covering his ocean green eyes; pale skin, the palest Roxas had ever seen; army green sweater with wings on each side of the zipper on the chest area; washed out jeans that were wet at the bottom, knees, and now butt; black army-like boots with a skull on one side of each boot. The hat on his head was dark brown with two white stripes going around it and had a button attached near the side that had the word **GANG BANG** on it. He seemed nice, but was certainly interesting looking.

"-saw him and decided to greet my new neighbor before he asked me to help make him snow man… although, I was doing most of the work while he just slacked off," Riku finished with whatever he was talking about, giving his best friendly smile that almost chilled the blond. It did not look nice, but his mother and brother were oblivious to it. "Where are you going to school?"

"Kenai Central High School," Roxas answered, giving the new teen a small glare that promised death if he messed with his poor, sweet, innocent brother. "My little brother and I start Monday."

Riku's eyes widened just a fraction in glee towards Sora, which only Roxas spotted. "Really? You two are brothers? I thought you and Ven were brothers, I mean you two do look-"

"We are," the blond interrupted. "Ven's my twin. I decided to stay with mom while he came up here to live with dad." He ignored his mother's scowl and the small shout of his name as he turned towards the house and walked inside, Laura followed him.

"What was that Roxas?" she asked harshly, stopping him by grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. "You didn't have to act so rude to our neighbor, he was just being kind."

"It was nothing, just… PMSing," Roxas half joked. He took a step away from his mother and walked upstairs to his room. He closed the door and fell back first into his bed with a sigh, his legs still hanging off. The blond waited to hear his mother's footsteps coming after him, but nothing happened. "What a fucked up day it's been." Closing his eyes, Roxas retraced this evening's encounter with Axel, a really nice gothic guy he had met by chance. The older teen was nicer compared to Riku.

It was true what Roxas said about him and this other kid named Ven (really named Ventus) being twins. About 24 years ago, Laura was once married to a man named Cid and had Leon (23), Roxas (16), and Ventus (16) before they got a divorce because they couldn't agree on anything and it usually involved a lot of yelling after the twins were born. A year or so after their divorce, Laura got married to a man named Devon, who was Cid's friend, and had Sora over 14 years ago. Two years ago, Cid moved to Alaska, bringing Ven with him, and married a woman named Shera. So Sora is really Roxas', Leon's, and Ven's half-brother.

Axel might have known Ven, because when he first saw Roxas when he fell on his face, he looked so worried until he saw that it wasn't someone he knew and was with people he had never seen before, though the gothic stranger still seemed a little worried about Roxas' face. Axel hadn't said anything about Ven yet, leaving the blond confused. It looked like he was going to ask a couple of times today while at the store, but held his tongue back as Laura went on and on about what it was like in Chula Vista, California where they used to live.

With an annoyed sigh, Roxas rolled onto his side after he kicked his shoes off and dragged his legs up onto the bed. It was around four when he fell asleep, waking around six when his mother shook him awake to let him know that dinner would be ready in ten minutes and that he should wash up. Roxas obeyed and groggily got up, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he made his way to the bathroom to wash his hands. With that done, he made his way down stairs, the smell of Hamburger Helper wafting into his nose. The table, that had been pieced back together yesterday and been set into the dining room that was attached to the kitchen, was set with a few dishes filled with delicious food.

A few extra dishes were set, making Roxas puzzled. Soon enough, something jumped onto his back and hugged him from behind, making him almost lose his balance as a voice squealed happily in his ear. "Roxas! I missed you so much!"

The blond rolled his eyes when he recognized who it was, dropping on to couch back first, which meant landing on that someone rather than the couch. The person he was laying on 'oof'ed when they landed, which made the person let go. Roxas stood up and turned around to come face to face with a blond that looked exactly him, only his hair was less spiky and was a shade lighter. Blue eyes that were just like his, only a shade darker, looked back up with happiness glowing in them. A grin spread across his face widely as the twin stood up from the couch to hug Roxas, who returned it just as happily.

"I knew they'd be happy to see each other," a gruff voice stated from beside them, making the twins look up to see a man with short golden hair, eyes as blue as the sky, and short stubble on his chin. He grinned around the toothpick in his mouth at the two boys, receiving an excited greeting from Roxas.

"Dad!" Roxas was in his arms in mere seconds with a large smile.

"How's my boy?" Cid asked as he looked down at his smiling son.

"Good."

"That's good. I hope you haven't been giving your mother and step-father any trouble, are yeah?" The man let go of his son and gave a questioning look, fake scowling when Roxas pretended to look cute and gazed off to the side. Soon enough they were both laughing. "You better have been good to them or I'd smack ya!"

"Hey dad, your accent's gone, it's kinda weird." Roxas quickly changed the subject suddenly, it seemed to have worked.

"That's what happens when you live up here for a couple of years," Roxas' step-father interrupted as he greeted his best friend, shaking his hand with a large smile. "You're just in time for dinner."

"Am I? Good, I've been wanting to try some of her food again." The blond man licked his lips as walked into the kitchen where his wife and ex-wife were talking with friendly smiles, Shera helping Laura out with putting the filled plates on the table. "This doesn't look good, my wife being friendly to Laura, now I have two people who are able to pick on me."

The women laughed together, calling for everyone that dinner was ready. It was odd how a divorce had gone so well and everyone was still friendly with one another. Shera liked Laura the moment she met her this evening and Cid was not angry in the lest that his best friend married his ex-wife all those years ago; he was actually relieved that Laura found someone who would treat her better than he did. He and Laura were still friends, but they liked to pick on each other from time to time.

The evening went by quickly and Ven wanted to spend some more time with his twin, asking his mother and father if he could stay the night with Roxas. They agreed as long as it wasn't any trouble to Devon, Roxas' step-father, who said it wasn't any trouble at all and would be glad to have him over. The twins and Sora, after giving the two of them a pitiful and lonely look, were locked in the brunette's room, catching up on what had happened when they last saw Ven. Since it was Saturday, they stayed up late talking until they feel asleep in the small tent they had made in Sora's room using one of Roxas' blankets and a sheet, all three cuddling up together under a couple of covers.

LINE-BREAK

Axel toed off his shoes as soon as he was inside his home, a grocery bag in each hand. He looked towards his left and smiled to see that his grandmother was fast asleep on her favorite green, cushioned rocking chair, her knitting needles forgotten on her lap. A meow towards his right had him look towards the kitchen to see his pregnant cat sitting next to her empty bowl, meowing again once she knew she had his attention. Soon enough, a small brown puppy was beside her, whining in front of his own food dish. The goth rolled his eyes with a smile as he sat the bags on the counter near the refrigerator that sat close to the hallway, the ending wall being the only thing separating them.

The cat brushed her face on his pant leg, purring while the dog barked. Axel shushed the dog so he wouldn't wake up his grandma and dove into one of the bottom cabinets to pull out a small tub that held dog food and a small tub that held cat food, pouring a cup for each bowl before filling up the water dish. With that done, he put his own food away, only leaving out the milk and pocky. Axel grabbed a thing of strawberry syrup and made strawberry milk before he went into his room, turning on his laptop.

While the laptop booted up, Axel opened his treat and stuck a chocolate covered biscuit stick into his mouth. He put in his password, letting his desktop load until he deemed it ready to go onto the internet. It was almost four when he looked at the clock on his computer and it was already getting dark, but it was taking longer each day now that Black Friday had passed. That was the shortest day of the year; it only stayed light out for an hour or two before it got dark again. Axel shrugged it off as he got onto Facebook, not finding anyone interesting to talk to.

"Aww, Venny's not on," Axel pouted as he signed off before anyone he didn't want to talk to caught him. Thinking of Ventus, the blond looked exactly like that kid Roxas he had ran into earlier today; it crept him out when he first met Roxas and was even about to call him Ven if it wasn't for the kid's parents and (obvious) siblings that were with him. The only reason why the older teen even met him again today was because he had mistaken Roxas as Ven again. "They must be twins; brothers definitely."

The history between him and Ven goes back to when the blond first came two years ago during the summer with his father. They had bumped into each other on the beach when one of Ven's neighbors asked for him to come with them to have a bon fire. Ven's new neighbors made it as a welcoming party to him and his father, inviting a bunch of people to meet the boy and Cid. Axel was one of the people to be invited and he went just to be nice; he hated parties. But he was glad he went, he had gotten to make a new friend.

During the party, Ventus had wandered down the beach towards the mouth of the river. Axel was already down there, sitting on a large washed up log while drawing in the sand with a stick. The goth had grown bored with the party and wanted some time to himself, but he wasn't expecting to meet the kid that the party was thrown for. Axel jerked back, holding back a shout when a shadow loomed over him and looked up to see the most adorable thing he had ever seen. Ven was a little shocked himself, but not because Axel was cute, rather the opposite.

It was an odd meeting that soon turned into a wonderful friendship.

_They do look a lot alike, but they're definitely different in personality,_ the black/redhead thought to himself. While Ventus was always happy and hyper, even when they first met, Roxas was calm and quiet. _They dress differently too._ Ven always wore light colors with a wrist band that he said was a good luck charm; Roxas wore colors that were dark, but Axel had only met him twice so what did he know, right? Then it came to him… _Roxas? Fuck! I can't believe I actually forgot! Ven did say he had a twin brother a couple of times by the name of Roxas; how could I forget? Well… he doesn't talk much about his family life, mostly about his father and that's just about it._

Axel closed his laptop, set it aside, drank his milk, and made his way into the kitchen to make something after he set his cup in the sink, only to find his grandmother already making dinner. She smiled his way, her long, thick white hair done up in a bun as she mixed chopped up cabbage with smoked sausage, carrots, and potatoes in large pot with a little bit of olive oil. The puppy was beside her, looking up intently and expecting to be given a treat.

"Hey, Nirvana! What did I tell you about begging, huh?" Axel scowled at the small dog. The puppy walked over to his master with his tails between his legs and his head down. The goth picked up Nirvana and held him up to his face, a frown still etched on it. "No more begging for food that you can't have. If you're hungry, come get me or G-ma and bring either of us to the food cabinet." The dog whined pitifully, causing Axel to lose his scowl and smile, crushing the dog to his chest. "You're so cute; I love you!"

His grandma chuckled at the scene and the way her grandson talked. "Go get your sister and tell her it's time to eat."

"Roger that el'capytan." Axel gave a solute before turning on his heal to march down the hallway towards his sister's room. He knocked, waited for a moment, and then walked in to see his sister curled up on her side on her bed, a look of agony on her face as she held the lower part of her stomach. "Guess this is a bad time to tell you that dinner's ready, eh?"

"Yeah," the girl replied, her dark red hair clinging to her sweaty forehead, blue eyes clinched closed from pain. "Can you get me some aspirin and a heated water bottle? I'm in too much pain to get up right now…" She hissed as a wave of pain hit her, toes curling and fingers clinching her sheets.

Axel nodded, giving his sister a concerned look before he left to get the much needed aspirin, a glass of water, and an empty water bottle to fill up with hot water just for the occasion before rushing back into her room with the items. He gave the water bottle first, which she quickly grabbed and placed it between her thighs and the lower part of her stomach, so he could open the aspirin bottle and hand her two of the gel pills for now after she took a drink of water, swallowing them individually. He used his sleeve to wipe up some of the sweat from her forehead, giving one more concerned look and left.

"Is Kairi not feeling well?" the old woman asked when he came back into the kitchen and sat at the small round table. She sat a plate in front of him that was filled with delicious food, but Axel wasn't feeling hungry anymore now that his sister was in pain.

"Yeah, she's having some pretty bad cramps," the tall teen replied, picking at his food with his spoon. It smelt really delicious, but his stomach didn't want it right now. "I don't know how girls can handle this every month."

His grandma chuckled at the boy's concerned frown, taking a bite of her own food. "It's nothing bad; just think of it as a good sign that Kairi's still able to have children and that she's not pregnant. The aspirin should work here in about twenty minutes and she'll be out here eating with us soon enough." She grinned that wise grin of hers that always made Axel feel better, causing him to feel hungry again and eat.

She was right though; twenty minutes later, Kairi came out, all sweaty and gross, but her stomach was telling her to eat even though she felt a little bloated. Her grandmother gave a small sample of each dish she made, not wanting her granddaughter to feel sick before going to bed.

After dinner, Axel and Kairi did the dishes while their guardian put the food away and cleaned up the kitchen. Soon afterwards, Kairi went to go take a relaxing bath while Axel decided to watch some TV for a while, watching an episode of Psych while relaxing on the couch. His sister joined him soon afterwards, practically laying on him, while their grandmother began knitting a blanket-for whom, one would have to find out later on.

"Ven called today while you were out, Axel," his G-ma stated after a little while, not looking up from her work. "He tried calling your cell, but said it was busy. He said that his brother moved to Soldotna yesterday in a house that Cid had recommended for them to buy online." She smiled down at her work. "Didn't Ventus say that he had a twin a couple of times about a year back?"

"Yeah, I just remembered that today, actually," Axel answered, running his hand through his sister's, who was falling asleep, hair. "I think I met that twin yesterday and today."

"Really?"

"Yup. Same spiky blond hair, same height, but different attitudes. But what do I know, Roxas could be just shy." Axel shrugged.

"Is that his name, Roxas?"

"Yup. Met his mom too, Mrs. Laura."

"I see. We're going to have Ven show us where they live so we could give them a proper welcome sometime this week." The older woman seemed thrilled at the thought and was about to get up to get the phone until she saw what time it was. "I'll call tomorrow morning if anyone's awake."

"'kay."

**Lou-pie: so what do you think? Review and let me know. The chapters are going to be longer, as you can tell, but there's a lot about Alaska and stuff to do in Alaska that I'm going to have these KH boys do. I think it's going to be fun! I kinda got the idea from WTFChocobo's story 'Did you say Alaska' and asked if I could do something similar to it, she said I could so I had to type this up. Hope you enjoy it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Lou-pie: I couldn't wait to start the next chapter, so I started before my beta began making corrections on the first. Well, it's a story being held in my state; of course I'm excited… a little. I mean, I'm sure others have done the same thing with their state, right? Anyways, I dyed my hair last week and now I'm no longer blond, I'm a brunette now… it's taking some time getting used to. But I should shut up now and get onto the story, haza!**

**Axel: is she always this way (looks over towards Cloud and Sephiroth)?**

**Cloud: (nods) yes, unfortunately. It's difficult working with her on Blood Lust.**

**Lou: oh shut up Mr. emo blond. **

**Cloud: wow, good comeback.**

**Lou:…**

**

* * *

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**Chapter 2: New acquaintances**

Roxas' eye twitched as he looked at all the kids milling around the entrance of the school, girls talking energetically with their friends while the guys spoke tiredly to each other. Sora was at his side and was nervous at starting a new school; he had just gotten used to his first semester in high school back in California. Both were searching for Ven- their tour guide-but couldn't see him anywhere among the throng of teenagers. It was 7:30 and they had only fifteen minutes until their first class started; Geometry for Roxas and American literature for Sora.

"Where the hell is he?" Roxas mumbled, staying close the ceiling almost to floor windows near the entrance, sitting on the large windowsill that had hot air flowing up from it. He was starting to dislike this state each time he had to step outside. The forty degrees weather changed drastically and was now five below in just two days, so now the roads were icy and he had yet to find shoes with good grips on them to keep him up. He noticed that a lot of the teenagers didn't mind the ice and were having fun sliding on it on the way inside.

Yesterday, he and his family had gone out to town with Cid and Shera as their guide and checked out the malls (they can't even be considered that by how small they were and there were so few) shops, Fred Meyers, Wall Mart, and a few other places. Roxas noticed a couple of beach access roads, but didn't find them very interesting since it was the middle of winter and he wouldn't have been able to enjoy it anyways. While they were out, they had gone shopping for winter coats, boots, scarves, hats and gloves. Sora was the only one that got the hat with the flaps on it to cover his ears completely… he looked rather adorable with it on.

During that time, Ven had gotten a phone call on his cell without him noticing until he was home. He called his twin to let him know that Axel had called him and wanted to know where Roxas lived so he, his sister, and grandmother could invite them out to dinner. Roxas replied that he would tell the gothic teenager himself whenever he met him again, which felt very soon… a little too soon.

"Roxas!"

The one being called turned towards the voice and saw the black/redheaded goth coming his way with a smile. Roxas was surprised at seeing the taller teen here, seeing him carrying a couple of books. Once again, he was wearing nothing but black, the only color being his skin, the specks in his hair, and his bright yellow converse. However, the black around his eyes wasn't as drastic and he wasn't wearing any lip rings or barbells, just a few earrings and a nose barbell. His hair was pulled back though, giving him a different look with a few loose strands sticking out at random spots.

"Hey," the blond replied a little dejectedly.

"Geez, if I had known my presence wasn't wanted, I wouldn't have come over," Axel joked as he gave a look of fake hurt.

"No, no, it's not you; I'm waiting for Ven, but I can't see him anywhere." Roxas looked around again, still not seeing his blond twin. He turned towards his younger brother to see him looking at the older teen in bewilderment because of his appearance. "Oh, right, Sora this Axel. Axel, this I my younger brother Sora."

"Hi," Sora greeted meekly with a polite smile.

"Younger brother, eh? By how many years?" Axel asked without giving a greeting back, receiving a small glare from Roxas.

"About two," the blond answered. "He's fourteen and I'm sixteen."

"I see." Axel rubbed his chin before looking at his watch. "Well, I'll show you to your classes since we only got less than ten minutes left until they start." He gave a toothy grin at the relieved sigh Roxas gave. "What's your first subjects?"

"Geometry."

"American literature."

Axel grabbed the schedules and led them towards their classes before going to his own class, making it just before the bell rang.

LINE-BREAK

With each period, Axel would pick up Sora and Roxas to show them to their next class and telling them the quickest way to get to each. It was finally lunch time, which the brothers were thankful for, and followed the goth towards the cafeteria. The place was quite large and crowded enough that Roxas had to hang onto Axel's shirt while holding Sora's hand so they wouldn't get lost, which made the black/redhead laugh. However, the crowd did thin out when Axel dragged them off to a corner away from everyone when he found out that the brothers had brought their own lunch.

"You two wait here while I'll go get mine," Axel said after the two were seated, looking at the long line sorrowfully. He gave himself an encouraging nod, looking back at the two with a smile. "Here I go!" He was off, making his way through the much shorter teenagers and into the back of the line.

"He seems rather nice," Sora mumbled as he dug into his paper bag that held his food. His eyes narrowed when he took out a smashed sandwich, mayonnaise and mustard covering most of the inside of the zip-lock bag it was in. "Gross." It was soggy from the sandwich sauces and no longer enjoyable, but still eatable.

Roxas watched as Sora didn't even attempt to open the zip-lock bag, throwing it away in the nearest trash can. "He does," the blond agreed when the brunette sat back down across from him on the small rectangular table. He looked through his own lunch bag and pulled out a small can of Izze (a drink made up of juice and sparkling water that Roxas saw at Safeway the other day), a sandwich that was still intact, a bag of chips, an apple, and jello. He noticed the sad look Sora was giving his sandwich and handed it over to the pouting brunette. "Here."

"But it's your sandwich."

"I'm not very hungry today." It was true, Roxas didn't have much of an appetite today, or yesterday even; too nervous about starting at a new school. "Too nervous," he quickly added at the questioning look he was given.

Sora took the sandwich and took a nice chunk out of it, smiling happily. Sora always liked Roxas to make his sandwiches, saying that the blond always made them better than he did. The older brother didn't know why his sandwiches tasted better, but he always did it without complaint. He started on his own food, opening his salt and vinegar chips first, the salt burning his chewed up lips and bitten cheek. Looking to the side while he ate, Roxas saw that Axel was still in line, but now held a tray and was telling the lunch ladies what he wanted.

"To tell you the truth… I'm scared," Sora murmured suddenly, snapping his brother's attention back to him.

"I know. I am too." Roxas gave a reassuring grin as he took a bite of his apple, giving a disgusted look soon afterwards when he bit into a bruise. He stuck out his tongue that held the chunk of apple he had bitten off and picked it off with his fingers to toss it into his lunch bag.

Sora 'eww'ed with a soft sickened look. "You're gross, Roxas!"

"I'll say," came a familiar voice, one that Roxas didn't particularly like.

A familiar silver haired teen sat down next to Sora, smiling widely at the brunette. Roxas only glared when Riku smiled his way, making the older teen's smile drop a little and look away a little awkwardly. By then Axel was back with a tray filled with food (I wouldn't even call it that) and a can of coke, sitting next to Roxas.

"Hey guys I'm-oh… it's you," Axel said stiffly when his eyes fell onto Riku, his smile dropping, face becoming blank.

The silver haired teen sneered at the goth like he was the most disgusting thing in the world and crossed his arm over his chest. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Both of the brothers glanced from the goth to Riku, confusion etching on their faces at the intensity of their glare towards one another. Roxas swore he saw lightening flickering between their harsh gazes; he even felt the air becoming heavy suddenly, like a black cloud was about to show itself suddenly and snow on them.

"Why does it matter to you where the fuck I am? I can be wherever I want to be and hang out whoever the fuck I want to hang out with," Axel spat, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear. "I'm their guides for the day since Ven isn't around today…" A light seemed to have clicked on after he said this, eyes widening before he smacked a hand to his forehead. "Shit, Ven's oral surgery was today."

"Smart," Riku teased.

"Shut up fucktard."

"Hey, hey," Roxas butted in before Riku could say anything else, "what's up with all the hostility?" He smiled worriedly as the two continued to glare at one another like it was the Olympics and just had to win against the other.

"Nothing," Axel replied, looking away to give the blond a strained smile, though it didn't reach his eyes. Riku won this round.

Roxas gave a small sigh and decided to change the subject. "So what's this I hear about Ven going to the oral surgeon?" He could feel Axel becoming less tense beside him at the change. "He never said anything about a surgery."

"He most likely forgot about it," the gothic teenager mused before taking a bite from his burnt pizza, looking up towards the ceiling as he thought.

"Just like you?" Riku teased, not going to take the chance to make fun of the teen for granted.

Axel seemed to notice this and smirked after swallowing. "Yup; I guess it happens a lot between friends. But I guess you wouldn't know… would you?" Ha, Axel one: Riku zero! "Anyways, he has to get his wisdom teeth pulled out. He could have waited for another year or so, but he wanted to get it done and over with."

"I see." Roxas gave the table a sour look at the thought of having surgery in his own mouth, putting a hand over it as if to keep it protected. "I'm glad I don't have wisdom teeth."

"Shit, you're lucky," Axel cursed. "I had to have mine out two years ago and they still weren't above my jaw bone, so they had to cut into my jaw and dig 'em out. That was the shittiest week of my life!" He angrily chomped another large piece from his pizza, almost choking when he swallowed. A sudden inspiration came over him and he opened his soda to chug it down before getting up on the table, his mouth wide open as he worked the muscles in his stomach.

What happened next had Roxas laughing hysterically, Sora making a disgusted face, and Riku looking down right annoyed and grossed out: Axel belched… and it just wasn't a small 'burp, excuse me.' It was long, loud, and impressive. It went from low to high just be the way the goth moved his mouth and it grabbed everyone's attention, causing the whole cafeteria to quiet down and watch in amazement. A kid barfed into a trash can in the back ground followed by a quiet 'ew' from someone who was standing next to the puking teen.

Finally, after about twenty-two seconds (seriously), Axel finished with a closed mouth belch before sitting back down, after a quick bow, next to the now silently laughing Roxas; the blond was laughing so hard that you couldn't hear him anymore, and when he took a deep, squeaky breath, he was back to laughing, his head nestled against the table top. Sora looked like he was about to throw up and shoved his food aside, not wanting to gaze upon any kind of eating substance anymore. Riku… his eyes twitched, his mouth was shaped in revolt, and his fingers twitching to break something.

Without a word, the silver haired teenager stood and walked away, throwing his untouched food away. Sora was about to follow him, but didn't want to leave his brother's side and decided to stay put, watching his brother calm down and wiping away tears. The brunette saw the older teen smirk in victory before he took a bite out of his pizza, making Sora feel like he was going to puke his guts and looked away.

"What in the world was that?" Roxas asked with a large grin, giggling here and there. Everyone was back to what they were doing now that the show was over. "You just suddenly got up there and," he broke out into a set of snickers. "What a way to change the subject!" When he finally calmed down, he took several needed breaths and took a sip from his Izze. _This is good!_ He thought, looking at the can.

"Yeah," Axel sighed happily, his elbow leaning on the table while his hand held up his head. "Just came to me suddenly and felt right at the time. Now I left behind a legacy that not just you and I will remember, but the whole school…" His smile lopsidedly, his eyes gazing up towards the ceiling.

Sora watched the two in nervousness, having nothing to say to them. Axel noticed the other's silence and swiped some of the grease from his pizza to wipe it on the tip of the brunette's nose. This was the last straw! Sora got up and ran towards the nearest trashcan, throwing up what little lunch he had. Roxas watched his brother in concern before turning his head to glare at the goth, who feigned innocence.

The rest of lunch was spent by Axel teaching Roxas how to belch by sucking in a lot of air into his stomach, but it wasn't easy and made the blond feel sick a few times. Sora was long gone, saying he had to use the restroom but he never came back. Roxas wasn't too worried about his younger brother and stayed by the older teen's side when the bell rang. Axel showed him to his next class before he left for his own, giving a large, closed eyed smile to lift the younger boy's spirits. It worked, because Roxas gave a small one back over his shoulder when he walked into the classroom.

LINE-BREAK

"First day of school of the week, done," Axel stated as he sagged on top of the large windowsill in the entrance of the school. Roxas was leaning against it next to the black/redhead, a relieved smile on his face as he waited for his brother. "So how do you like Alaska so far?"

The blond shrugged. "I'm disliking it every day. It's cold, icy, and moose pop up out of nowhere when mom drives!" Roxas sighed in frustration as he hopped up next to Axel. "What is there to do in the winter besides snowball fights and sledding anyway?"

Axel gave him an 'are you serious?' look, his lip twitching up at one side. "Well… there's snow machining, ice fishing, making snow forts, and umm… ah! Paint balling! And shooting each other with plastic BBs (sp?) in the woods!" He shivered at the memories that were rolling around in his head, smiling while his bottom lip was caught between his teeth. "Course, you could also shoot each other with paintballs and BBs in the summer too… just much more fun when there's snow on the ground."

"I see…" Roxas swung his legs from side to side, sometimes bumping into the goth's, as he thought about what paintballing meant. He'll most likely find out soon enough with being Axel's friend and all. But… did Axel think of him as a friend? They did just meet a couple of days ago. The older boy was really nice to him and even bothered to show him and his brother to their classes knowing he was probably going to be late for his own. Maybe he was just nice to him because he was Ven's twin, but that seemed highly unlikely. Thinking about Ventus reminded the blond about something his twin said yesterday. "Hey Axel?"

"Yessss?" Axel turned towards the younger boy with a curious grin, giving Roxas his full attention.

"Ven said you called him yesterday and wanted to know where I lived so your family could take mine out to dinner." Roxas paused for a few seconds. "Why didn't you ask for our phone number… or cell numbers, rather?"

The gothic's eyes widened at his own stupidity, suddenly feeling very much like a fuckberry at the moment. He gave a pathetic laugh as he scratched the back of his neck. "Wow, I can't believe I didn't think of that before. Geez I'm a fucking loser." He smiled, however, at the small snicker Roxas gave, glad that he made him laugh.

"I guess you are," Roxas teased after he was done with his snickering. Being so vocal and open to this boy, a complete stranger, was rare to the blond since he was always so quiet, even with his best friends back in California. He was only talkative to his brothers, especially Ven, and sometimes with his parents. This gothic boy, though, just made him want to smile, laugh, and talk all the time just by using a few simple words. It was odd, but it felt good to him.

"Hey, don't dis the losers, sunshine; they could save your life one day," Axel bantered back with a smirk. He looked so proud to be a 'loser' and it had Roxas laughing quietly to himself again.

"You're no loser; you pretty cool for a goth."

"Goth?" Axel looked up towards the ceiling in thought as he tapped his bottom lip with his index finger. "I guess I am gothic considering how I dress and stuff, but I don't wish of becoming the undead and do weird hoodoo crap at night."

"Well thank god for that."

"Voodoo is more powerful."

"…" Roxas gave the black/redhead a dry look, eyeing the older teenager.

"I'm kidding."

"… good, 'cause you certainly had me worried there that I became friends with a nut job."

The word 'friend' coming from Roxas' mouth surprised the goth, causing him to make an odd look that Roxas snickered at. "You consider me a friend?" Axel asked, his eyes shining with happiness at the thought of having a new friend.

The blond shrugged. "Sure, why not? You gave me the impression that you wanted us to be friends and I wouldn't mind having a goth for a friend around to help me when I need it." The younger boy smiled, but soon yelped in surprised when the black/redhead suddenly hugged him and rubbed his head against his blond spikes.

"I promise to be the bestest friend ever!" Axel exclaimed in a baby-ish voice.

To say that Roxas was embarrassed by the older boy's show of affection would be an understatement. Everyone was looking at them as if they were retarded and went on their way to ignoring them again save for a few people. The blond pushed him off, almost making them fall off the windowsill, and fixed his hair the best he could before giving an annoyed glare towards Axel, who just smiled innocently.

"Sure you will," Roxas mumbled under his voice, but gave a small smile to reassure him that he wasn't really angry with him. The grin on Axel's face widened at this. "It might take a while for Sora to get used to you being around since he's not used to… well… difference."

"And you are?" the older teen asked teasingly, poking the blond's forehead.

Roxas pushed the hand away. "Yeah… most of the times. Like when I first saw you, I thought you were some creep who I shouldn't hang around; but I soon changed my mind when you helped me and my mother out at the store, then proceeded to help me and Sora out with our classes. Plus you're pretty cool to talk to." He saw the other blush in flattery and scratch the back of his neck, obviously not used to getting comments.

"Geez, way to make a guy feel special. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were coming on to me."

Roxas almost snapped back a reply, but knew Axel was just teasing and wanting to get a reaction out of him because he liked the way the blond got all flustered. Well Roxas wasn't going to give him the pleasure of it now. "Don't flatter yourself, you're not that pretty."

"So you think I'm pretty?" Axel smirked; he was the best at this kind of banter and always won.

_Damn it!_ Just when he thought he was getting better, Roxas was in a rut to think of something witty to say, and fast. "Sure, if people don't mind living corps."

"Ouch, touchy." The older boy winced at the comment, but nodded in approval. "You're getting much better since this morning; have you done this before?"

"My dad and I used to do it a lot before he moved up here a couple of years ago," Roxas replied with a small smile before mentally cursing himself for saying something so personal to a stranger he was getting to know, tensing visibly at his stupidity.

Axel saw the other tense and chuckled. "Aren't you forgetting that I'm good friends with your twin? I do know a little about your past because of him, y'know. Like how Cid is your biological father."

Roxas rolled his eyes for being stupid again and let out an agitated sigh. "Right. I wonder how he's doing? Ven, I mean."

The goth shrugged his shoulders. "Wanna check on him as soon as the rest of our posse arrives?"

"Posse?"

"Yeah, your brother and my sister."

"Oh."

"So do ya? I can drive ya to his house, it's no problem. I was gonna stop by anyways." Axel sat a foot on the windowsill so he could lean against his knee as he gave a closed eyed smile.

Roxas took a moment to think it over before he agreed, trusting the older boy enough that he wasn't some rapist or junkie. He was about to ask what the problem was between Axel and Riku before arms suddenly wrapped around him and picked him up in a bear hug, giving a few shakes. The blond knew it wasn't Axel since the person who was hugging him had black spiky hair from what little bits poked into his eyes.

"Oh my god, Ven! You look so smexy in darker clothing!" the person exclaimed before putting the blond down so Roxas could get a better look at who had attacked him. What he saw surprised him. "Wait… you must be Roxas! Ven told me a couple of days ago that you'd be moving up here! Sorry about that!"

"You look an older, dark Sora," was all Roxas could say as he stared at the taller teen before him, his mouth open and eyes wide in awe. The person who had mistaken him as Ven had hair in the shape exactly like Sora's only it was black and the exact face, except his was more toned and he had glowing yellow eyes.

The teen laughed at this, not offended by it at all. "That's exactly what Ventus said when he saw me! I actually saw this 'Sora' on my way over when I spotted Axel's crazy like hair." The black haired boy grinned almost devilishly. "He's so cute I just want to eat him even though he looks just like me! Does that make me a narcissist?" He looked upwards a little as he thought, shrugging a few seconds later. "So where is our cute little Ven?"

Axel, who had watched the whole scene in amusement, finally made himself know to the dark haired boy since he was easily forgotten for someone who looked like Ventus. "He won't be in school for a few days or so since he got his wisdom teeth out this morning."

The grin immediately dropped from the new comer's face and was replaced by a sad and worried frown. "My poor little Ventus had surgery? Aww, my poor baby."

"I don't remember him ever being your baby since he's already mine," a new voice stated from behind Sora's evil clone. A boy that looked almost as old as Axel stepped beside the dark haired teen with a satisfactory smirk at the angry look on the boy's face. The stranger spotted Roxas and smiled. "Hello, my name is Terra and this is Vanitas. You must be Roxas; Ven could not stop talking about you when he first moved up here."

Terra had what you would call an athlete's' body that was easily seen through his tight polio shirt and had dark chocolate brown hair to go along with it that spiked back in thin layers, bangs hanging on either side of his sun kissed face. Grayish-blue eyes gazed down at the blond with a friendly smile while Axel scoffed in the back ground.

"Tch, sure he tells you everything when he only tells me a few things each time I see him," Axel whined, crossing his arms over his stomach as he continued to lean on his raised knee.

Terra rolled his eyes. "Well I was his first friend and I'm his boyfriend."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Roxas butted in when the word boyfriend was said. "Ven never said anything about having a boyfriend. I may have heard your names mentioned once or twice, but I don't ever remembering him telling me he had a boyfriend."

The small group of friends went silent just as Sora, Riku, and some dark redheaded girl walked up. Riku gave the black/redheaded goth a glare, but it soon dropped when he noticed the dark tension in the air between Roxas and Terra. Sora and the girl kept quiet when they saw the look on Roxas' face while Vanitas had a confused yet worried look on his face as he looked between the blond and brunette, wondering how this would turn out.

"Are you disgusted?" Terra asked after a few moments of staring into Roxas' eyes, which proved to be quit hard to do considering those smoldering blue hues were staring intently back. This was Ven's _twin_ we're talking about here.

"No. Just upset that Ventus never said anything about you being his…" The blond looked over towards Sora for a second. "You know." Roxas' frown turned into a smirk as saw nervousness well up in the older teen's eyes. "But if you hurt him, I won't hesitate to tear off your balls and staple them to you ankles then rip off your nose and replace it with your penis." Feeling like he got the point across that he wasn't mad, he smiled at the terrified teen that was dating his twin.

A whistle from Vanitas seemed to have dropped the tension in the air and have himself acknowledged by the trio, who looked up at him in shock and had the girl and Riku look between Sora and Van. Riku was the first to speak up since Sora and the redhead girl were too astounded to say anything.

"You look like Sora's dark, evil twin." The silver haired teen wanted to hit himself for sounded so retarded, but it just slipped out. He had seen Vanitas a few times during their senior year, but he never really got a good look at the dark haired boy's face. Now that he has, he can honestly say that he really does look like Sora's clone.

"I'll say," the girl agreed with a chuckle. "I actually told Sora that he looks like Vanitas' good, cutesy clone when I first met him." She walked pass the group and sat next to Axel, giving him a small grin. "Are we going to visit Ven before we go home?"

"Yeah. I invited Roxas if he and his brother wanted to come with." Axel jumped off the sill and walked over to Roxas, putting his elbow on his shoulder to lean on him as he looked at Sora expectantly and at Riku tensely. "You coming short stuff?" he asked Sora.

The small brunette nodded uncertainly. "I should probably tell mom where we're going then. Can I borrow your phone, Roxas… if you actually remembered to bring it?" He sighed in relief when the blond pulled out his cell from his backpack and handed it towards Sora. The younger brother quickly called the number and asked Laura, who said it was ok as long as they were home before bedtime. "Sweetness, thanks mom."

"So what'd she say?" Roxas asked with Axel still leaning on him; it was starting to make his shoulder hurt from the added weight. He grabbed his cell and tucked it into his pants' front pocket, jostling the goth a bit from his movement.

"She said it was alright as long as we're home before ten," Sora answered. The brunette gave the black/redheaded boy a raised eyebrow at the way he was leaning on his brother without Roxas making a fuss over it. "Who's taking us?"

"I am," Axel stated simply as he stood straight, causing Roxas to sigh in relief and rub his shoulder while quietly saying 'you have one boney elbow.'

"I can give a few rides too, since I'm going to Ven's house as well," Terra announced as he stood next to Roxas, giving the blond a friendly smile. "I'm sure you can't give everyone a ride in that small truck of yours."

Axel stuck his tongue out at the insult to his truck. "I like my truck."

"So who wants to ride with me?" Terra watched Sora's, Riku's, and Vanitas' hands pop up and group around him while Roxas and the girl stood next to Axel. "Ok, let's get going and not waste any more time." He led his group outside and towards one side of the parking lot in the back of the school while Axel led his group in the parking lot in the front.

"I'm Kairi, by the way," the girl suddenly spoke up next to Roxas. "I'm Axel's little sister." Her light blue eyes shone with proudness when she said this as the soft breeze blew her short hair into her face.

"I figured," Roxas said with a small grin. "I'm Roxas, Ven's-"

"Brother, I know. Sora's told me all about it." She walked to the side of an old red Chevy and opened the passenger door, sliding in the long one seat next to her brother.

Roxas hopped in after her and buckled up, eyes widening when he saw that the truck was a stick shift. Driving a stick shift truck in the winter? Seems scary, especially with Axel driving since he looked like a crazy driver. He shuddered when the goth started the engine and turned on the heater after turning on the radio. The blond watched Axel grab the stick that had a fake gun chamber where the hand gripped and moved it around so he could roll forward out of the parking space he was in. Soon enough, they were on the icy highway going towards the right to enter the heart of Kenai.

"You seem kinda scared, sunshine," Axel teased lightly. "Never been in a stick shift before?"

"No."

"… oh."

Roxas felt the car change shifts when the older boy sped up, making the blond jerk in surprise. "It looks hard to drive."

"It is at first, but you'llget used to it and it'll become as easy as riding a bike before long." He changed into third gear when he reached the outer city limits, making Roxas clutch his seatbelt. Axel chuckled. "Don't worry so much; I'm a god driver, I pay attention."

"It's more of the other drivers and the road I'm worried about."

"Yeah, some people just don't know how to drive if you ask me."

Kairi had rolled her eyes at this point, knowing that the comment was mostly pointed towards her.

Five minutes later found them passing the Woodland subdivision and turning down Redoubt Ave before turning into Inlet Woods Drive. Ven's house was the first one on the right; a small, one story, whitish-greenish house with white trimming. Two cars were in the driveway, making Axel park on the side of the road he was on. Roxas was all too happy to jump out and did so, not watching where he was going and landing on the newly made snow bank, causing him to lose his balance and fall face first into the snow. Roxas thought it would be fine if the snow didn't have a thin layer of ice on top of it, scratching up his face as he fell through it to hit the much softer snow.

"Holy shit!" Axel laughed as reached Roxas' side and pulled him up, stopping his laughing when he saw thin cuts on his cheeks, chin, and nose. "You ok?"

"Yeah. Was not expecting that though," Roxas uttered, brushing off the now much hated snow from his face and hair. "Does your snow always get ice on top of it?"

"Only when it melts and then freezes over night."

"I see." Roxas hopped over the bank onto the road to follow Axel up the driveway and onto the covered deck. The goth didn't even wait to knock and just walked inside, slipping off his shoes and coat; walking through the house to disappear down the hallway. Roxas and Kairi quickly followed, placing their coats on top of Axel's that was on the chair in the entrance. A door was open that had quiet chatter and music coming from it and the blond guessed that that was his twin's room.

Kairi was already inside by the time Roxas came in, finding Ven watching a movie tiredly while he laid on his side on the bed with his head in Terra's lap. A pair of long strings attached to gauze hung from his mouth, a little pink from soaking up the blood. Ventus lazily looked up at his twin and motioned him drunkenly to come towards him which Roxas obliged and sat down behind him so he could lay on his side with his head laying on his twin's hip-no asked him about what happened to his face since it was too dark in the room to see. He, Ventus, Terra, and Sora were the only ones on the bed while the others sat on the floor, either on beanbags or leaning against the bed.

Before long, Ven was up and going to the bathroom, bring his twin with him to help him so he wouldn't fall. The drunken like blond pulled out the gauze slowly and threw them away before tipping his head down over the sink and letting all the drool and blood drip out heavily, trying to spit a few times which didn't help much since they were too weak. Roxas spotted the bag of fresh gauze balls and handed them to his brother, who swallowed four aspirins before placing the gauze over his stitches. Ven had Roxas wait outside so he could go to bathroom before going back into his room and replacing himself on his bed with his head once again on Terra's lap.

The brunette gazed down at his weak boyfriend while running his hands through blond locks, worried about his poor baby. He continued massaging Ven's scalp until he was fast asleep, sighing a little dejectedly. The others decided to leave after a little while since they knew Terra wasn't going anywhere and would be watching over the blond so they didn't have to worry so much anymore. The problem was, though, how was Axel going to give the others a ride home. It was sometime after five now and already starting to get dark.

"I can walk home," Vanitas said as he slipped on his winter coat and shoes, giving Roxas and odd look when he saw the cuts on his face. "I live just down the road." He was out before Axel could say anything and running down the street to his home that was in the same subdivision.

"I guess we can squeeze in if someone is willing to sit on someone's lap," Axel suggested, wishing Shera or Cid were home; they had left to work when the first group arrived. The others agreed and piled into the truck, Sora sitting on Riku's lap with Kairi sitting on Roxas' lap. "Don't try anything funny with my sister."

"As if I would do anything," Roxas mumbled back, leaning as far away from the girl's body, his back pressed into the back of the seat. He was very uncomfortable with having a girl sitting on his lap for the very first time and didn't really like the feel of her cushy butt pressing down against his crotch. It didn't arouse him, no way, but it still made him nervous.

"That better be your phone I'm feeling," Kairi said awkwardly, making Axel glare from the corner of his eye for a second or two.

"It is, don't worry."

Riku, who had been mostly quiet the whole time and looking at Roxas' cut up face (not saying a word) the whole time, smirked in amusement and didn't mind so much with having Sora (also wondering about his brother's face, but not saying anything) sitting in his lap. He was even becoming aroused, but Sora couldn't tell since he was sitting closer to his knees than his crotch and Riku was glad for that. Riku's was the first stop since it was still in the city, but more towards Soldotna. The silver haired teen waved goodbye at Roxas, Sora, and Kairi, but glared heatedly at Axel and flipped him off as he walked down his own driveway.

Axel growled and quickly sped away, wanting to be as far away from the guy as fast as possible. "So where to?"

"Cannery Rd, Cetacea Ln."

"Really? We live in the same neighborhood." Axel grinned excitedly at this and followed the directions Roxas gave him. "I thought you said you lived in Soldotna."

"Isn't this Soldotna?" Sora asked cutely, tilting his head to one side.

"Nope. We're still in Kenai… well along the borders of it." Axel pulled into the driveway of the house Roxas had pointed out, whistling at the two story house. "You live here? That's a pretty big house. I drive by sometimes when I'm going to the beach and I've always wondered what it would be like inside." The goth got this look of a little boy at Christmas with each word, almost bursting as he looked towards Roxas pleadingly.

"Would you guys like to come in for a few minutes?" the blond asked as he rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Do I?" Axel was out in a second, waiting for the others and telling them to hurry their asses up. He followed the brothers excitedly into the house, staring in awe at the large kitchen and soon living room (dining room attached) where the boy's parents were sitting watching TV.

Laura noticed them first and smiled widely when she that they had brought in Axel and some other girl. "Hello Axel! It's very nice to see you again!" She up and shaking the boy's hand in seconds before turning towards the girl in curiosity. "And who's this?"

"I'm Kairi, Axel's sister," the young girl replied with a courteous smile of her own. Both of the woman looked towards the goth to see him staring out the almost floor to ceiling windows in amazement (you could see the beach from there) while talking and introducing himself to Devon. Kairi sighed at this, finding it odd at how astounded the house could be to Axel. "It's difficult being his sister sometimes."

Laura laughed. "I know what you mean. My brother was always a trouble maker, but he was always very kind to his family. Would you like to have Roxas and Sora give and Axel a tour of the house?"

"Sure," Kairi accepted with a nod of her head. "Your house is amazing by the way."

"Thank you. Roxas, Sora, be a dear and show Kairi and Axel around the house; I can tell the young boy is just about to burst." The old woman chuckled as Axel came to stand next to Roxas, waiting impatiently.

The blond sighed and motioned for the siblings to follow him. "This is the living room with the dining room attached to it. Over there is the kitchen and over here is the bathroom and my parent's room." He showed them the bathroom quickly before taking them upstairs and went towards the right. "This is my room." He opened his door to his room quickly before walking across the hallway towards Sora's room. "And this is Sora's room."

They went back down stairs and followed the blond through the kitchen to a door that led to another part of the house and opened it, walking up the narrow flight of stairs. At the top beheld a large room with a large TV and a few game stations. Another small flight of stairs led to a small platform where Leon's 'room' was for the time being until he was able to move out and live on his own. It was a rather large room and was therefore called the gaming room.

"Sweet," Axel mumbled underneath his breath as he walked around the room, being mindful not to walk up to Leon's, whom he didn't know who that was but was guessing that it might have been Roxas' older brother, room. "You guys have a pretty awesome house."

"Thanks."

The troop went back downstairs just in time for dinner, Axel and Kairi staying when asked. Roxas was mostly quiet throughout it while Sora babbled on about Riku and the new friends he made and about the classes he had. The blond only spoke when Laura asked what happened to her baby's face, smiling at how funny it sounded. Devon smiled throughout the conversation and gave a few comments here and there while Laura talked just as excitedly about her trip into town to look for work. Axel said a few things when asked, but kept quiet when a few personal things were asked, making Roxas curious.

"So you say you live in the neighborhood? What a pleasant surprise," Devon finally spoke, gaining everyone's attention. "You must bring you parents over to visit when we are not busy and they have the chance."

Kairi and Axel became stiff at this and froze, the goth pausing in mid-chew and his sister freezing in wiping her mouth with the paper towel she and the others were given. Axel swallowed his food and gave a nervous laugh while scratching the back of his neck, looking down at his plate.

"Uhhh sure; I'll make sure to tell them," he uttered and quickly stuffed a forkful of noodles into his mouth to keep himself from saying anything else, ignoring the small narrow of eyes from his sister.

Laura, Devon, and Sora were oblivious to the siblings' discomfort, but Roxas could feel the uneasiness in the air press against him, especially since he was sitting between Kairi and Axel. The blond said nothing as he left the table to rinse off his plate and put it into the dishwasher, Axel soon joining him as soon as he finished off his plate.

"We can go up to my room to hang out if you want," Roxas suggested to ease Axel's uneasiness, nodding his head towards the stairs. He was disappointed when the older boy shook his head and gave the blond a small smile.

"Nah, we should probably get going," the black/redheaded goth replied just as Kairi walked by to put her dishes in the sink. "You ready to go?" he asked the small girl. It was only after seven, but Kairi didn't protest even though she wanted to stay a little longer.

"Yeah," she answered. She thanked Laura and Devon for having them over for dinner, giving Sora a small hug goodbye, and Roxas an affectionate hair ruffle. "See yeah." Kairi was out the door quickly and entering the truck when Axel ruffled blond locks as well.

When the goth ran his fingers through blond hair, his long sleeve slipped up and Roxas caught a glimpse of a scaly tail before Axel pulled away to shake the parents' hand and give Sora a little bump to the shoulder with a fist. He put on his coat and gave one last smile to Roxas before leaving.

"They're rather nice," Laura said as she closed the door, walking back to the living room with her husband following her.

"Yes they are," the man agreed.

_But rather odd,_ Roxas thought as he followed Sora upstairs.

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**Lou-pie: Actual names of places here where I live, no made up roads or anything… is that safe?So I had another character have a tattoo, but what can I say, tattoos are soooo hot! If I made any changes with the house, sorry about that. I hope this chapter pleases you and I hope it makes you want to review. Please tell me if I should continue.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Lou-pie: sorry for the looooong wait… my computer had a virus. Shit, I just remembered that Riku was Sora's and Roxas' next door neighbor and yet I managed to forget about that so sorry, but I has fixed it to make it more mysterious! So this story is slowly making its way on since I've never done a story that had a lot of pages in each chapter. And yes, salt and vinegar chips are the best! So I hope you're all enjoying the story so far and I am so happy because Blood Lust got 100 reviews, yahoo! Now on with the story!**

**Rating: PG-NC17**

**Pairing: Axel/Roxas, others**

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**Chapter 3: Family Relations**

Axel sighed as he rolled off his bed and made his way towards the bathroom in his boxers after slipping on his black rimmed glasses, bare feet padding across the carpeted hallway. He slipped out of his boxers once he was inside with the door closed and stepped inside the bathtub/shower before closing the dark blue curtain. He turned on the faucet and waited for the right temperature before pulling down the end of the faucet so the shower would turn on and spray down on him. Axel shivered when cold water hit his chest first before slowly turning hot, causing steam to rise up and fog the mirror.

The door opened suddenly and Axel had to peek out to see who it was, giving an irritated sigh when he saw that it was only Kairi. "What the hell Kairi? Can't you see I'm naked and taking a shower?"

"Yes, but I can't see anything so quit your whining," the girl replied as she started applying her make-up.

"Can't you use the other bathroom?"

"This one has better lighting."

"It shouldn't be that hard to put on make-up since you don't wear that much," Axel grumbled as he went back under the spray, grabbing the ocean wave scented shampoo and began washing his hair.

"It is quite difficult to apply eye-liner when you're first starting out! This is my second week of actually using it!" Kairi spat back. She scowled at the shower curtain when she heard a small chuckle coming from it. "I can't see why you have to wear make-up."

"I only wear eye-liner, thank you very much, and I like the way it makes me look."

"Some crazed psychopath that likes to molest children?"

"Oh hardy har, har."

Kairi smirked to herself in the mirror in victory as she applied a little bit of cover-up. "So what the heck was that last night? Why didn't you tell them?"

"… I'm not comfortable about talking about it and they were almost complete strangers," Axel replied a little solemnly. "Why didn't you correct me?"

"Because I too am a little… uncomfortable talking about it, so I thought you might have told them." She laughed nervously. Putting away her make-up, she walked out without another word.

Axel rolled his eyes at the lame excuse as he rinsed out the conditioner. After washing his body, he grabbed his towel to wrap around his waist and walked back to his room to get dressed. The goth pulled out a black, short sleeved Billy Bong shirt and a pair of washed out, boot cut jeans before slipping on some mismatched socks. With that done, he went back into the bathroom to brush his teeth, put in his contacts, apply his eyeliner, and fix his hair. Feeling rather tired this morning, Axel didn't feel like putting his contacts in and decided to keep his glasses on; only putting a little bit of black on his lower lids and he didn't even bother to gel his hair in its usual spikiness, letting it spike it's natural way (which wasn't much) in a low pony tail.

He took off some of his earrings and put in his nose barbell, his lip barbells was the next to go in with his lip ring. Axel then decided to also put in his eyebrow ring before he called himself ready to go, skipping breakfast since he woke up a little late today. He took only one step into the living room before Kairi was pushing him towards the entrance, telling him to hurry up and put on his shoes so they could go. The black/redhead pulled on his yellow converse and black hoodie that had the Zelda logo on it before grabbing his keys from the key bowl on the stool underneath the coat hangers after slipping on a dark blue beanie.

It was rather nippy this morning, making the siblings hurry to the truck so they could turn on the truck quickly and get warm. Axel practically slipped, but luckily he slipped into his truck and was able to grab hold of the car door handle. He unlocked it and pulled himself in to reach over and unlock the passenger side to let Kairi in. With the truck turned on and the heat on full blast, they were on their way to school.

LINE-BREAK!

Sighing, Roxas sat alone on the windowsill near the school entrance as he looked outside to see if he could find a familiar head of red and black hair. Sora had gone to hang out with his new friend Riku somewhere else in the school and left Roxas alone to his lonesome. He spotted a couple of people that he recognized from his classes and had talked to, but they were busy talking to their friends to really see the blond. Giving another sigh, he turned around to let his legs hang over the edge.

"Why, don't you look like a bundle of angst," a deep, yet childish voice spoke, snapping Roxas from his sadness.

The blond looked up to see a young man with jet black hair spiked back almost like Axel's, only it wasn't as crazy as the goth's, with a lock of hair hanging over his right eye, which were a dark, deep blue. He was a little pale (no surprise there since almost everyone here were pale unless they went tanning regularly) and had a scar in the shape of an 'x' on his left lower cheek near his jaw. The man smiled down at Roxas toothily, showing rather pearly, straight teeth.

"You must be new, right?" the man asked as he sat next to the blond. "I may not remember names, but I do remember faces."

"Yeah, I'm new," Roxas replied, feeling a little uncomfortable with the man being so friendly with him. "Just moved up from California."

"Really? That's nice. But I bet you're hating it because of the cold weather."

"Yeah."

"Is that why you're upset?"

"I'm not upset per say, but that's not what it's about," Roxas quickly answered. He wanted to hurry up and get away from him even though the man was rather nice, but he was an adult and who knows what he really was. "My brother left me behind to go hang out with a new friend of his and I'm waiting for my own newly made friend."

"I see. I think I did see you walking by the weight room with Axel yesterday while on your way to your next classes." The man tapped his chin as he narrowed his eyes in thought. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Zack Fair, the weight trainer for the school."

Roxas gave a mental sigh of relief when he heard that this man was only a teacher and was just trying to be nice to the new kid. "I'm Roxas Taylor." They shook hands with smiles on their faces.

"You must be Ventus' twin, 'cause I almost called you Ven when I first saw you. But that's when I realized that he doesn't angst, he just pouts cutely... and because he had his wisdom teeth pulled yesterday." Zack chuckled, Roxas as well. "Every time I see him, I'm always reminded of my husband Cloud, and now you too; you guys look almost exactly like him."

The blond was shocked to hear this, eyes widening when the man plainly said he was gay; a gay that was married. "Husband?"

"Oh, sorry, you're not offended… are you?" Zack quickly asked with an apologetic look.

"No, no, just surprised. Gay couples can get married here?"

"Well, the state recognizes married gay couples, but they can't get married here; they have to get married in another state."

"Oh."

Zack grinned. "I'm glad you're not disgusted. I suppose you're not since your brother is… well, gay… with a boyfriend." The man glanced away as more students filled the school. It was fifteen minutes until the warning bell rang.

"I actually didn't know until yesterday," Roxas stated a little sadly, leaning back against the window. "We haven't been all that close ever since he moved here with dad. Sure, we talked once in a while on MSN or Facebook, but we don't talk about what's been happening in our lives. He may have mentioned that he made a new friend, but only told me their name once or twice. Other than that, we're kinda reconnecting." He shrugged.

"Which I'm guessing is going pretty smoothly since you're twins; well, until he got his surgery." The raven haired man stood up and turned on his heels so he could look down at Roxas' sad form. "Axel should be here any minute!" The man looked outside the tinted window and spotted the tall teen they were just speaking about. "And speak of the devil, he's here."

Roxas spun around in his seat. It took him a while to recognize the goth since the black/redhead had on a beanie and a pair of glasses, but he knew it was him because Kairi, who was speaking angrily at him and was being ignored, was walking right next to him. He looked… tired, overly tired; which was weird because he looked just fine yesterday. Roxas thought that he would fall over suddenly and him walking on slick ice didn't help doubt his thoughts. Kairi became quiet once inside and left her brother's side in search of her friends.

Axel made his way towards the windowsill, unknowingly that Roxas was already there waiting for him. Zack greeted the goth first, surprising the sleepy teen.

"Hey Zack, Roxas," the black/redhead murmured tiredly, not even giving the two a smile as he sat down next to Roxas and leaned his head on the blue eyed teen's shoulder, closing his eyes. He was leaning heavily on Roxas, the blond being the only thing keeping him up.

Roxas felt a little uncomfortable by the contact, but didn't move or say anything; the guy wasn't that heavy anyway. Zack was unsurprised by Axel's actions and rolled his eyes with a light smile. Roxas gave the older man a questioning gaze, wondering why the man was giving the goth that kind of look. It was answered, accidentally most likely, when Zack gently picked up the teen and murmured,

"Looks like he didn't take his pills… again." The raven said this unknowingly that Roxas had great hearing.

"Pills?" the blond asked as he too stood up, looking at the sleeping figure in Zack's arms.

The man looked at the blond in surprise before giving Axel a guilty look. "He… has a lot of 'stuff' going on in his life right now that he has to take some sleeping pills to help him sleep at night and get a full night's rest." He began walking away, motioning with his head for Roxas to follow him. "If he doesn't take them, he stays up late and becomes really tired in the morning that he can't function right, but that only happens when he doesn't get enough sleep in a few days."

They turned down a bunch of halls as Zack explained until they reached the nurse's office and were greeted by a dark brown haired woman who wore a dark red sweater that was rather low cut and black slacks. Her hair was up in a loose bun with dark brown eyes, which looked up once Zack walked in. She sighed and stood up from her desk, her high heeled boots clicking on the linoleum floor as she walked over towards the raven and the goth, motioning for Zack to lay him on one of the empty beds. Zack obeyed and placed Axel in the bed closest to them.

"He hasn't been taking the pills I had asked him to take?" the woman asked with a heavy Italian accent as she crossed her arms, now in front of Zack. When the raven shook his head, she sighed in aggravation. "I swear, that child is going to kill himself at the rate he's putting himself through."

"Leave the worrying to me, Christina," Zack said quickly, giving the woman a reassuring smile. "You already have a lot on your plate, with the new coming of a baby and your husband being away all the time with his job."

"Ezio is thinking of quitting his job and getting another one when my due date is close."

Roxas looked back and forth from the two adults, wondering if he should wait for Zack to finish or leave and find his class. He decided on the second and began to leave, but Christina's voice stopped him.

"And who is this? A friend's of Axel's?"

Zack hummed questioningly before looking behind him and remembering that Roxas was still with him. "Hm? Oh, yeah. He's a new friend of Axel's."

"Shouldn't you be going to your classes, young man?"

"I was," Roxas protested lightly, trying to keep the angry look off his face. He started to leave again until Zack caught his arm and pushed him into a chair next to Axel's bed.

The raven smiled. "You stay and guard Axel from Christina; she's not going to be very nice when he wakes up. You won't get in trouble since you're new anyways and I'll let the teachers know."

"Hey!"

"See ya!" Zack gave a final wave and left, leaving an angry Christina.

The woman eyed the blond before sighing and gave the teen a smile. "I guess I don't have to stay while you're here. So I'll be going up front to my real office; I usually stay back here since it's quieter and I can get my work done." She left after saying that, closing the door behind her.

This left Roxas alone with a sleeping Axel (get your head out of the gutter people!) and with nothing to do. There were a couple of teen magazines on a self next to him, but he wasn't interested in them since he found them rather boring. He did feel a little tired though and would like to get some more sleep; his thoughts kept him up late last night. So, without further ado, Roxas climbed into the bed beside Axel after pushing him towards the other side of the bed. He could have used the other bed, but he had a thing for sleeping in unfamiliar places that made it difficult for him to sleep. Since Axel was kind of familiar to Roxas, he couldn't help but feel safe when he lay next to him. He radiated off enough heat to keep the blond warm and Roxas soon followed Axel into sleep.

LINE-BREAK

Roxas had no idea what time it was when he was being shaken awake again. He took in a deep breath and stretched, his eyes had yet to open. He yawned at the end of the stretch, making the person who woke him chuckle. Roxas opened his eyes then and was meet with rather beautiful green eyes and a nicely shaped face. It took him a second to realize it was Axel he was looking up at and to realize what happened earlier that morning. Sitting up, Roxas rubbed his eyes with the back of his wrist, wanting to go back to sleep for a few more minutes.

"What time is it?" he asked the older teen as he stood up, giving one last stretch to wake himself up.

"It is lunch time," Axel answered.

Roxas froze, eyes going wide. "Are you telling me I missed half of my classes?" He ran a hand through his hair angrily, giving a small growl. "I can't believe I fell asleep that long and missed most of my classes!"

"Hey, calm down, blondy," Axel said without any concern in his voice. "It's only your second day here and you just moved here; the teachers aren't gonna bother ya until next week, believe me. You have nothing to worry your pretty little head over." He gave a wide, toothy grin to reassure the blond. "Now let's go, I'm starving!"

Roxas nodded and grabbed his bag that he had set down next to the bed earlier, picking out a paper bag with his lunch in it. It was lot heavier than yesterday and more stuffed, making Axel gaze at it questioningly, hopefully. Roxas could only smile at the look, keeping his mouth shut the whole way to the cafeteria room. The two of them wormed their way to the back where they had sat yesterday, finding Sora and Riku already there.

"There you are!" Sora exclaimed when he spotted his older brother. "I thought something might have happened to you; lunch is almost over!" A quick look at the clock that hung over one of the cafeteria's entryways proved the brunette right.

Axel shrugged after he sat down across from the younger brother, Roxas sitting next to him. "I kinda fell asleep on Roxas and was brought to the nurse's office. Roxas came with and I'm betting Zack gave him the ok that it was alright if he skipped a few classes today, so fell asleep too." He kept the part where Roxas had fallen asleep beside him on the bed to himself, not wanting to embarrass the blond even though it sounded tempting.

Riku rolled his eyes when he heard the name Zack. "Of course Zack would do that, the saint."

Axel snorted at the silver haired teen as he stood back up to go get his own food, but Roxas stopped him and showed him the extra sandwich, chips, drinks, and snacks that were for him. Axel's eyes widened before he gave a cute puppy-dog grin and hugged the blond tightly. The goth dug into his lunch happily, making Roxas envision Axel waggling his tail in a fast pace with a set of pointy dog ears perked up on top of his hat. Riku once again rolled his eyes at the scene, but Roxas found the goth's antics… cute.

"You'd get excited over anything, wouldn't you?" the silver haired teen said gloomily.

"Of course if it's from my cute little friend Roxy!" Axel replied excitedly when he noticed the drink that Roxas handed him was a NO FEAR. He took several gulps of it and burped quite loudly after leaning over towards Riku so he could do it in his face. "Thanks Roxy!"

The blond snorted, trying to keep back his laughter when Riku waved a hand in front of him and gave the black/redhead a disgusted look. "No problem, you looked like an energy drinker, I just didn't know what kind you liked and all we had were NO FEARS (thanks to Leon)."

"Leon's going to be mad when he finds one of his NO FEARs gone," Sora stated jokingly with a small smile. "But we can tell him it was for a great cause." Roxas chuckled at the way his brother was trying to be funny and it was rather adorable; even Riku couldn't help but melt.

It was all fun, even with Riku's small cockiness towards Axel, until the goth suddenly groaned in pain and grabbed the left side of his rib cage, making a sore face. "Oooow, that did not feel good." He bent down a little and Roxas saw the muscles around Axel's ribs on his left siege up and twitch quickly for a few seconds.

"What the hell was that?" the blond asked, watching as the older teen sat straight again, still rubbing his side.

"It's my ribs; happens all the time," was the quick reply, but that wasn't all of it and Axel kept going. "I have scoliosis and because of that, I have all these knots in my back and ribcage that pulls on the muscles around my ribs. And shit does it hurt." He rubbed again, feeling a rather large knot there. "Yep, and there's the problem." The knot slipped from his fingers several times until he finally caught it with his middle and index fingers, pushing down on it to get rid of it. The whole time, Axel was wincing and making sore faces that appeared funny to Riku and Sora.

"Want some help? I'm really good at taking out knots," Roxas stated, wanting to help the miserable looking goth out. Axel was grateful at this and took off his sweater, lifting his arm to present his knotted side. The blond confirmed his curiosity about Axel having a tattoo and was right that it was a bright red snake with a black belly, only he couldn't find the head and the snake continued underneath his shirt.

The taller teen winced and hissed as Roxas worked on the knot that he was trying to get rid of earlier, feeling great relief when he felt all the juices squirt out and his muscles relaxed. But the hand didn't stop, nope, it kept traveling and finding more knots. Axel was almost in tears when Roxas decided that he had to stop before lunch time was over and began eating again. Axel slowly let down his arm with a hiss, his side still a little sore from the pressure, but it did feel a little better than before.

"There's still plenty more, but it'll be too painful to get them all out at once," Roxas explained after swallowing a bite from his sandwich. "And the pain could get worse if you don't get that checked out."

"Trust me, I've been to a chiropractor before and it did help, but they are expensive and I no longer have my Denali Kid Care to pay for it," Axel scoffed, pouting as he finished off his sandwich.

"Denali Kid Care?"

"It's kinda like Medicare for kids from the ages 1-18," Riku explained as he brushed his hair aside from his face. "It'll pay for anything medical so that you won't have to pay for it yourselves."

"Yeah, what he said," Axel agreed. "When I first started getting pains in my side, my grandma took me to the health clinic to get it checked out. They took x-rays to see what was wrong, found nothing. They thought it had to deal with my heart since most of the pains happened around that area, so they made me wear a heart monitor thing for 24 hours. It was a bitch to wear and cost over 800 dollars." Roxas whistled at the price, finding it rather ridiculous. "And I didn't have to pay cent, Denali Kid Care did."

The brothers' eyes widened at this, thoughts running around in their head. "I should ask mom and Devon about it and see if we could get some," the blond said, speaking both his and Sora's thoughts out loud.

"It depends."

"Denali Kid Care is for those who can't really afford medical care for their kids," Riku interrupted before Axel could say anything more. He finished the last of his own meal and sat back as far as he could in his chair without falling backwards. "I don't have it because my parents have the money. If you can afford the medical assistance, then you don't need the extra help."

"Oh," Roxas and Sora said at the same time, a little disappointed.

"I don't have it anymore, because I'm 19 and the people don't believe I'm still in school." Axel leaned his elbows on the table and cradled his head in his left palm while his right sat on his left arm. "I'll tell you about it later," he quickly added when Roxas opened his mouth to ask and the bell rang. "Onto classes of doom, I guess."

LINE-BREAK

Second day of school went pretty well. Zack was right in the teachers not expecting anything from him since he was new in town and trying to get into the swing of things. Roxas' mind was filled with a lot of questions about several things (one we already know); the relationship between Axel and Riku, of course; and the thought about Riku being their neighbor, yet Axel dropped him off at another house yesterday, which confused the blond considerably. Axel being 19 and yet he's still in school also bothered the blond, more so than the thought of the goth's and silver haired teen's rudeness to each other. Kairi and Axel had to be at least 5 years apart in age and this kind of disturbed Roxas just a little.

Roxas waited by the usual place for Axel and the others, letting his thoughts run as he waited. He had yet to see Terra today or Vanitas, not even at lunch time (he caught a glimpse of them today in the cafeteria), and was a little bit concerned for Terra on how he was handling with his boyfriend being bedridden for most of the week. Roxas wasn't too worried since he had seen this with Leon and knew that Ven wouldn't be too bedridden, just in a little bit of pain and not being very hungry… unless he got a dry socket. Now those looked painful to get.

He remembered Leon getting one and was constantly taking Advil to lessen the pain, not wanting to take too many of the pain medication prescribed to him since it would make him too dehydrated and make him sick. Leon finally, but stubbornly, went back to the oral surgeon to get the blood clot that wouldn't scab over sucked out and replaced with some sort of cotton, packing thing that tasted like clovers and held some kind of numb medication to numb the pain. Leon was back to his usual self in less than thirty minutes when the medicine kicked in, almost skipping as he walked.

_I wonder how Ven's feeling today,_ the blond thought as he sat over the heating vent, letting the warm air flow through his clothing. He was surprised out of his musing though when an arm wrapped around his shoulders. He knew it was Axel; the goth always seemed to be wanting physical contact. Roxas didn't deny him and let the black/redhead touch him, feeling like he had to for the older teen's sake.

"Sorry it took me so long to get here; Mrs. Rosso wanted to talk to me," Axel explained after he let his arm drop, though his shoulder was pressed against the blond's. "Said she was worried about and shit."

"Because of this morning?" Roxas couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah. Word got around about me being carried off to the nurse's office by Zack and she kinda… freaked." He rolled his eyes at this and leaned back against the window, his knee now touching the blond's. "Getting kind of tired of everyone's worrying and shit."

"Why are they so worried about you?"

Axel froze at this, his eyes widening just a bit just as he was rubbing his right eye. He soon frowned and looked away, kicking his heel once, twice, against the small tiles lining the wall of the windowsill. Roxas knew he had hit a rather sore spot and opened his mouth for the goth to forget what he said, but Axel interrupted him. "It's because of what happened two years ago and what happened in my past that makes them worry about both me, Kairi, and Lea, my older brother."

"Do you mind if I ask what happened? If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand."

"No, no, it might do me some good to actually talk about it, but not here where there's too many people."

Roxas nodded his understanding just as Sora came bounding up to them with a large smile, Riku following behind at a much smaller pace. Kairi was soon seen running down the hall and into the large entryway to catch up with them. Axel quickly switched back to his happy mood like a snap of fingers and was greeting the bouncy brunette with a large grin; a sneer was all Riku was receiving today, earning a sneer back. Kairi smacked both of them upside the head and told them to stop acting like a bunch of children. During all this, Roxas' eyes never left Axel's form, watching him act as if their exchange never happened.

After their quick greeting and Sora calling mom to see if they were taking the bus, Riku left with a woman that was most likely his mother after saying goodbye to the brunette and redheaded girl. Sora then explained that Laura was on her way to pick him and Roxas up and that she was already in town looking for a part time job. Axel replied that he and Kairi would wait there until their mother picked them up, which Roxas then said that the two siblings would be welcomed to come over. The blond had given Axel a gentle, yet knowing look, letting the goth know that he hadn't forgotten.

Laura was there within minutes, still using Cid's car since they had yet to buy their own. The two brothers left, telling them to come over whenever they wanted before they left. Axel and Kairi left soon afterward.

LINE-BREAK

Roxas sighed around the pencil in his mouth, trying to figure out the last problem that was given to him for homework. He did a little extra so he could be a little ahead just in case something like what happened today happened again; he certainly hated the thought of falling behind. He already did the rest of his homework, which was easy, between classes; living through Axel's taunts of being a nerd. It was math that always gave him a hard time, always has. He was going back over the ones he had skipped and was now becoming frustrated. Just one more, one more! and he would be done; it wasn't even dinner time yet.

The blond let out a furious groan and let his head fall onto his desk with a loud bang.

"Do that too much and you certainly won't figure out even the easiest problem," Axel's taunt pierced through his brain, making Roxas sit up and swivel his chair around to face the taller teen. Roxas gave him a surprised, questioning gaze. "I knocked, but you didn't answer so your mom told me to go right in. The loud bang made me move faster than I would have liked."

Roxas rolled his eyes, noticing Axel's black and white bag hanging from one hand. The older boy had obviously came over to do homework together with the blond, but he would have to be disappointed since Roxas was already done… almost. Just this last fucking problem and he'd be done! Roxas motioned for the black/redhead to take a sit on his bed, which Axel obliged and sat down on the comfy mattress, bouncing a little.

"What's got your nose in a bandage?" Axel asked when he noticed the look Roxas was giving his math book. Axel was afraid that the book would suddenly combust from the blond's glare.

"Huh? Oh, just this stupid math problem," the small teen grumbled, just about ready to give up. "Are you good with geometry?"

"Eh, not really. I suck at math, to tell you the truth." Axel laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head near his neck. "I can count, multiply, and divide fast, but that's the only talent I have when it comes to that subject."

"Same here. It's more of Leon's thing, but he's not here at the moment. He actually left right when we got home, saying something about hanging out with a new friend he made."

"Which seems rather surprising to you it seems."

Roxas sighed, closing his book and tossing his pencil onto his desk. "Yeah, he's socially awkward, doesn't have many friends, and likes to stay away from people as much as possible." He rolled the chair back and turned around so he could get up and sit next to Axel before lying down on his back. "Whoever this friend is, I want to meet him."

"Hmm, maybe he's just like Leon."

"Nah, they'd be too awkward around each other so he'd have to be hyper, but not enough to drive Leon insane."

"Maybe he is really a she." Axel wiggled his eyebrows down at the blond, which the blond demolished with a pillow to the face.

"Leon has no interest in girls… or guys. I'm starting to think he's asexual."

Axel barked out a laugh at this, but it soon turned into a wince of pain as a hand grabbed his left side. "Goddammit, I've been getting a lot of those pains lately." He rubbed his side gently, trying to find the knot that was causing his pain.

"I could help ease the tension off if you want, I mean after you've finished with you homework," Roxas suggested, sitting up once again.

"I finished it before I came over here; the bag is full of junk food and shit." Axel unzipped his hoodie and slipped it off, putting it on the blond's bed. Once again, the tail was show to the blond and Roxas couldn't help but stare at it with all its very detailed scales and underbelly. The goth noticed the stare and smirked. "This is just the end of the tattoo I got last year. It's pretty sweet if you want to see it."

Roxas nodded and Axel quickly slipped off his Tee and turned around to show his back. The blond followed the tail from the black/redhead's right arm that twirled around it and up to his shoulder where it slithered over and wrapped around his torso, getting bigger as it went along. The tattoo finally came to a stop just above Axel's pants that hung low on his hips, the snake's mouth open and looking towards the left a little with a little venom dripping from its fangs. It was very detailed indeed and rather impressive; it fit the older male nicely.

"Sweet." Roxas inspected the art on Axel's back a little closer, deciding if he should get one himself. Maybe not since he was afraid of needles and did he really want one and have it until he was like sixty and it's like sagging disgust-fully on his skin. The blond shuddered at the thought and decided against it, finding the image rather disturbing.

"I have another one up here," Axel said, drawing the younger teen's attention upwards where the older boy was pulling his hair that was tied up away from his neck to show a knife with five points, like one of those throwing stars Roxas had seen once but couldn't remember the name of it. "It's a shuriken. I thought it was awesome and decided to get it done two years ago."

"Cool." Maybe a small tattoo where no one could really see it would be ok, but thay still meant needles. Wanting to get back on track on what they were doing before, Roxas cleared his throat and asked Axel to put his shirt back on. The goth obeyed and slipped the black tee back on, wondering what the blond was going to do next. The taller male remembered when the blond ordered him to lay on his bed on his stomach so he could help relieve some of the pain in his ribs.

"While I massage your back, you can tell me about why people are so worried about you and your sibs," Roxas reminded as the goth laid down, making Axel groan.

"Well," Axel began, "it all started back when I was nine. My mother… died of a heart attack. I remember everything! I was still in elementary school and my class was going to go on a field trip to the pool. I was so excited that I woke up earlier than usual. When I saw that mom and dad weren't home I started getting a little worried about who was going to take me to the poo-ow!" Axel hissed when Roxas found a rather stringy knot more towards his sensitive shoulder and pushed on it… hard. It didn't last long, however, and the pain quickly resided. Roxas began to search for some more.

"Continue," the blond ordered.

"Well, after about twenty minutes or so, Lea came out from his bedroom with the phone. He said that mom and dad were in Anchorage because mom had a heart attack. And since we were too young to stay home by ourselves, we stayed with a family friend. After a couple of days, dad came back with another family friend… but no mom." The goth grunted at another knot being taking care of. Roxas decided to have mercy and just massage his muscles to help him relax as he sat on top Axel's rump. "Anyway, I knew something was wrong by the look on dad's face and sure enough, it was not good.

"I remember the first words that left his mouth, 'she didn't make it.' I was confused at first before dad continued…"

_Flashback (Axel's pov.)_

"_She didn't make it," dad said after a few moments of silence, his eyes watering up. I didn't really understand what he meant by that; I was only nine after all. He wasn't finished though. "Clare died on the way to Anchorage from a heart attack she had in her sleep… mother isn't coming back."_

_It hit me then, like a hard slap to the face. It seemed like the same to everyone, Lea the most since he was closest to mother, and all at once, everyone burst into tears. I was hugged by Mrs. Lacy, my mom's best friend ever since my parents moved up here, and I cried into her shoulder. I cried as she silently wept, running her fingers through my short, red, spiky hair. Mrs. Carrie, the woman we were staying with, held Lea as he bawled into her bosom; his hair (similar to mine) was petted too. Kairi cried, but only because everyone else was; it didn't really hit her that mom wasn't coming back. She clung to dad as he cried almost as hard as I was, both using each other as a life line._

_It was a very sad day; it was cloudy (how cliché), but it didn't rain. I can't really remember what happened after that, but I do remember a little of the funeral, but I don't really want to think of that right now._

_End flashback_

The hands stopped on Axel's back when a well-known sniffle made its way out of the goth's nose, causing Roxas to stop and see if the older boy was crying. He wasn't, but his eyes did water a little at the painful memory and make his nose run from his eyes being drained from their fluids. Roxas frowned sadly at the attempt of Axel trying to keep himself together. Even after ten years, it still appeared difficult for the goth.

"You don't have to say anymore if you don't want to," Roxas murmured.

"No, no, I need to tell somebody. All my friends were there or heard from someone else when it happened so I didn't have to say anything. You are the first person I'm telling this too," Axel replied, folding his arms underneath his chin. "Please continue with what you were doing and I'll continue on myself."

"Ok." The hands continued, but they more than soothed the older teen than relaxed.

"Our relatives came up as fast as they good to be there for us and mom for the funeral and stayed with us for a week or so to help out dad. Grandma decided to stay permanently to baby-sit us while dad was at work. She helped us do chores and shit like that, teaching us how to cook and do our laundry. She had her other children send up her stuff for her. Everything was going swell, minus the many fights, until two years later, dad had to go to the hospital to have a double bypass done. Soon enough, his lungs started having troubles and had to have surgery on that… three times I think (I don't know).

"His body just… started shutting down. But he was strong willed and kept on working, even though it caused him to get pneumonia every winter. The longest he ever stayed in the hospital was four months and those were the last months he lived. His lungs were just… degrading until it was the machine that was keeping him alive. They doctors said that they would have to pull the plug on him and let him have a natural death, giving him some kind of medicine so he wouldn't feel anything… he was practically dead to the world by then anyways…"

_Flashback (Axel's pov.)_

_I decided to stay out in the waiting room of the ICU part of the building; I didn't want to be there when they shut off the machine, who knew what it would have done to me if I was there when the line went flat. I sat alone, listening to my music, waiting for the others to come out. Kairi wanted to be there even though she had a weak heart and Lea… he became a lot better at holding in his emotions ever since mom died. Occasionally, my eyes would tear up at the thought that dad was going to be gone from now on and wouldn't be coming back._

_It was 8:50 PM when Kairi came out, her eyes filled with tears and cheeks wet from weeping too much. I hugged her immediately as soon as she sat down next to me. I let her cry in my shoulder as I let a few tears slip out and hit her neck. Lea came out a few minutes later; his eyes (a shade darker than mine) rimmed red from unshed tears. Grandma was beside him with one of my aunts holding her as she cried into her handkerchief. We all sat and cried a little more in the room that was somewhat separate and more private then the rest of the waiting room. _

_Dad's funeral was rather sunny and hot and we spent that day with laughs and smiles, already trying to forget the pain. It helped until our aunts and uncles had to leave. It soon became crazy with trying to get our social security money, legal guardianship for grandma, and paying all the hospital bills on top of regular bills for the house. I had decided to get a job then to help bring in some extra money._

_Flashback end_

"Where do you work?" Roxas asked, deciding to help take Axel's mind from the obvious pain he was feeling. His back and shoulders were rather tense from trying to hold back tears, and it paid off, but his eyes and nose were red.

"I work part time at the PAC," Axel answered simply, his lip still quivering a little, but it was slowly subsiding from the change of topic.

"Pack?"

"Peninsula Athletic Club. P-A-C, PAC."

"I see. What do you do there?"

"I do maintenance; keep the place running most likely, but it pays good. Bunch of jackasses though, but there are those nice people once in a while." Axel hummed in appreciation when Roxas' hands pushed a little harder between his shoulder blades, soothing the rather tense muscles there. "Just a little lower, there." The massage was working wonders, turning the older boy's brains into jello. Axel especially liked it when Roxas ran his thumbs, hard, up along his spine. "How are you so good at this?"

The blue eyed boy snorted at this. "An old friend of mine back in Cali gave me a misuse book to read 'cause she'd rather have massages for free… she also thought if I did enough of this, I could probably make some big bucks. I thought she was nuts, but I read the book and used her as my test subject. Namine was rather an odd person, but fun nonetheless." He chuckled at remembering his childhood friend as he ran his thumbs up Axel's spine once again. "Now lay on your back."

Axel obeyed, his head now in Roxas' lap and hands. Fingers started to rub the base of his skull, making the goth let out a sigh of pleasure and closed his eyes. The small headache he once had was now gone as nimble fingers pressed against the nerves back there. His head was soon laid down on Roxas lap so the blond could work on his shoulders at a different angle. This he didn't like so much since it hurt from all the knots gathered there. The young boy only massaged them for a little while before calling it quits since his hands were becoming sore.

Roxas removed Axel's head from his lap so he could stretch his legs, lying down next to him afterward. A heavy silence fell over them as Roxas thought about the things Axel told him and the goth was silent because he was trying to think of something else rather than his rather sad past. Another thought sprung up in the blond's mind that had to be answered… several actually.

"Last night, why did Riku go to another home than the one he said he lived in across the street from us? And why are two enemies? And how are you nineteen and still in school?"

The taller teen laughed at this. "I'll tell you some other time."

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**Lou-pie: annoying and suspenseful isn't it? Anyhow, I'm going to bed since I have to wake up early tomorrow so I could help some lady with her baby since she can't walk at the moment. So sorry for the long wait again, I feel so terrible and cruel! I need more reviews too, it will help me know if I should going with this one. Ideas and concerns are welcomed as always and I will not strike back when a review is rather mean and hurtful IF! it is true. If it isn't then eat shit you bastards! Enjoy!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Lou-pie: ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, I told my younger brother that I liked yaoi and have for a while… and he said ok and told me he pretty much liked yuri and hentai. And then we started talking about porn and shit. Soon I started showing the yaoi pictures I saved and he kept making gagging noises and saying oh my god. It was hilarious but it's sooo much fun to talk about that stuff with my brother. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed that last chapter and please review, I like my readers.**

**Pairing: Axel/Roxas, others (don't know yet)**

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**Chapter 4: Touché**

Roxas waited for his Facebook to load up, hoping to catch Axel on. He was disappointed when the goth said he had work today and couldn't come over to hang out with him this Friday evening. The older teen had an iTouch and the place he worked at most likely had internet, so hopefully Axel had some time to chat with him. Roxas checked his chat box and was disappointed when Axel's name didn't show up. _Oh well, he might be rather busy right now, fixing stuff and all._

One week has passed and Roxas was doing great in school, or at least, that's what his teachers tell him. Sora was doing rather well and hung out a lot with Riku whenever the silver haired teen was at his mother's (Riku's parents were divorced and he mostly lived with his mother who was the Taylor's next door neighbors), disappearing for several hours at the silver haired teen's home. Roxas had yet to know what the deal was between him and Axel and what the real reason was for the goth to be in school when he's nineteen. Axel did say he failed last year and had to retake the twelfth grade, which didn't seem like a total lie, but the blond knew there was more to it.

Vanitas liked to hang around Roxas whenever he got the chance and even hit on him a few times before he himself was hit on the head by Axel, telling the dark clone of Sora to stop scaring Roxas. Now the black haired teen only flirted with him whenever the blond was alone or when Axel wasn't looking. The young blond tried to be friendly with him, but Vanitas was too much of a freak to deal with and it was hard to talk to someone who wanted to get into your pants… rather badly. A few times, Roxas had bitten the older teen to make him stop touching him in ways that made him feel uncomfortable, which went well until the second time he bit him (in the neck). Van growled lustily and would have dragged the younger boy off to have his way with him if Terra wasn't there to rescue him.

Speaking of Terra, the boy was awesome! He was kind, liked to help people out a lot, and was really funny; now Roxas knew why Ven was always talking about him whenever he hung out with him at his house. The reason why the blond hadn't seen much of Terra (or Vanitas for that matter) Tuesday was because he and Van were busy trying to get their homework done before they had to leave for work right afterschool. Luckily, the two of them had the same job and Terra was able to bring the darker haired teen with him.

Ven was doing quite well, much more than he was during the beginning of the week at least. The gauze was gone by Tuesday, the blood clots began to scab over by Thursday, and Ven was ready to go and hang out with Roxas this weekend… if he hadn't planned to spend it with Terra and Vanitas first. The happier twin did ask if Roxas wanted to hang out with them, but the angsty blond hastily declined when Vanitas was mentioned. Tomorrow wouldn't have worked either because Roxas had already planned to spend the day snow machining with Axel and a couple of the older boy's friends. Ven was going to come over Sunday, though, with Cid and Shera so they could have a family feast with a few of their newly made friends.

Roxas sighed as he shut his computer, finding it rather surprising that only a few people were on Facebook tonight, people he didn't feel like talking to at the moment. He sat there at his desk for a moment before opening it again and typing down his hotmail address so he could send an email to his missed friend, Namine. Fingers paused once in a while in thought of what he wanted to tell her.

_Hey Blue! What's up? Sorry I haven't called or emailed you sooner, just slipped my mind since I've been hanging out with my new friend Axel a lot. You'd like him, he's goth. He has these two other friends named Demyx and Zexion; you'd like them too 'cause they're just as crazy and fun as you are! Well, Demyx is, Zexion's more of the smart emo guy who likes to smile only once and a while. Zexion is rather shy when you first meet him, but after a while, he sometimes can't stop talking! Demyx is insane! Anyway, I've been good and doing quite well in my new school. Tell Pence and Olette that I said hi and tell Hayner… that I miss him. Hope to hear from you soon._

Roxas hit send before he could change his mind and slumped down in his chair. Hayner was his best friend until just a couple of weeks ago when he found out by the wrong person that Roxas was moving. The blond didn't know what to tell his friend and was trying to save it for a good time, but there never was one and with each day of not telling him was pushing his luck. When he did find out about Roxas and his family moving, he was told by Sora when he walked in suddenly to see the house that Roxas used to live in back in California almost completely empty despite the many boxes.

The blond shook his head to clear his mind, not wanting to think about that at the moment.

Anyways, the other people he mentioned, Zexion and Demyx, were the two that were with Axel when Roxas first met the black/redhead at Taco Bell. Zexion was the short kid with the bluish like hair while Demyx was the blond with the weird hairdo. Axel's and Demyx's parents had been best friends ever since Axel's parents had moved up here and into the home right next to the blond's. The two of them grew up together and Zexion soon fit into their lives during their Junior High school year, making them the Troubling Trio (the name came mostly from adults who didn't appreciate how they dressed).

The three of them had been inseparable after that.

Roxas smiled, being reminded of himself, Pence, and Hayner. The smile soon turned into a frown at the thought of Hayner and the blond quickly switched his thoughts onto something else… or at least tried to. Luckily, his phone began vibrating on his desk to let him know he had a text. Picking up his small phone, he checked to see who had sent him a message, grinning when he saw that it was Demyx.

_**Demy-kun says: excited about tomorrow XD?**_

Roxas had yet to better himself at texting since he was so used to calling someone up instead of sending small messages, but he was trying ever since Axel showed him how a couple of days ago when they exchanged phone numbers and email addresses along with finding each other on Facebook.

_**Roxas says: yes, but very nervous**__,_ Roxas slowly typed down after several tries.

_**Demy-kun says: y's that? Nvr been on a snow machine b4?**_

_**Roxas says: well ya! I'm from Cali, rmbr?**_

_**Demy-kun says: … riiiiight. **_

_**Roxas says: blond moment?**_

_**Demy-kun says: ya. I gtg, Marly's here 2 to pick me up, ttyl! **_

"Well that didn't last very long now did it?" Roxas mumbled to himself as he turned off his phone and put back down on his desk; if any only else wanted to call him or text him, they had to call him on his house number (he was running out of minutes). He stood up from his chair and fell on his back onto his bed, legs hanging over the edge. Great, more time to think.

Let's think about this 'Marly' that 'Demy-kun' mentioned earlier, that'll keep his mind from thinking about-anyways! Marly, or rather Marluxia, was Demyx's boyfriend of about three years. Yup, Demyx was gay and was doing it with some guy that had somewhat long, pink hair… PINK! And Roxas thought that this Marluxia would be the bottom when he first heard the name; he soon changed his mind when he saw how big the man was. The guy screamed jock everywhere; from his cocky smile down to his muscled thighs. Not that Roxas was checking the man out, but it was hard not to notice when the pink haired guy wore tight shorts and a tight shirt when coaching gym time. Uh-huh, he was the school's gym teacher and was major jock.

The small blond shuddered at the way the pink jock's ass stuck out when he bent over to pick up his hair tie that had slipped from his fingers. Roxas knew the man was doing it on purpose because everyone was staring and drooling over his nice round rear. Roxas almost gagged at that and quickly decided to change the subject onto Zexion and his now ex-girlfriend. That was a sad thought right there, but it kept him thinking about something he didn't want to. The slate haired man was devastated when his girlfriend suddenly came up to him and broke up with him in front of her friends, making the other girls laugh and point at him.

Zexion later told Axel and Demyx, who then told Roxas, that she only broke up with him because he wasn't ready to have sex yet with her even though they've been dating for about eight months; he just didn't feel comfortable enough whenever he saw her in her bra, not even in a tank top that was a little too low. Poor Zexy, he was a very nice guy with excellent morals and a great respect for women. This woman did not see that and was impatient about getting into his pants. Axel then proceeded to tell the short boy that she wasn't worth it if she was breaking up with him because of that.

"Poor Zexion," Roxas muttered out loud, not noticing that someone had entered his room.

"Who's Zexion?" Leon's voice rang out into the blond's ears.

Roxas lifted his head to confirm that it was Leon before laying his head back down. "A new friend of mine." He felt the bed dip near his left leg and looked up to see his older brother now sitting beside him. "What do you need? You usually don't come into my room unannounced and then sit next to me on my bed." The blond then sat up and gave the brunette a curious look as Leon gnawed on his upper lip.

"Well… since you don't mind that Ven's gay, do you mind if I might be gay?" Leon would not look into his younger brother's eyes as he said this, instead, finding the dark wooden flooring rather fascinating at the moment.

Roxas' eyes widened at this as his brother blushed a light shade of pink before a smirk replaced his shock. Leon had been talking to him a lot more these past few days, but that's when they were in his room playing video games and Sora wasn't there to listen in on them. The older brunette would tell him about how Cid was a pretty cool boss and about the other workers, one in particular named Nanaki. "Nanaki, right?"

Leon turned wide eyes towards the smirking blond, the blushing becoming darker on his tanned cheeks. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I had a hunched since you like to talk about him a lot and the way you kinda doze off while speaking about him." Roxas shrugged, his smirk turning into a small smile. "It's nice having you come talk to me more often now, though a bit weird, but I also have fun talking to you too." The blond lifted a foot onto the bed so he could rest his head on his knee, blue eyes still gazing upon the flustered brunette.

Leon gave a small smile as well and nodding his head lightly while looking out towards the window, it was getting dark rather fast, but that was understandable since it was almost seven. It was almost pitch black out now. "Yeah. I never realized how much fun it would be talking to my younger brother until we moved and away from my friends who I usually go to for advice. I have to say though, you give better advice than those douchebags did and you actually listen."

Roxas chuckled and felt embarrassed from the praise he received, not used to his older brother complementing him. "So why did you move up with us? You could have easily stayed with a friend."

"I wouldn't want to miss my younger brothers growing up for anything," the older male replied swiftly, giving a serious face, back to his frowning, angsty self. "I want to be there when you guys graduate and when you get married or something." He started getting uncomfortable talking about this sort of thing and luckily Roxas changed the subject hastily.

"So why else did you come to talk to me besides being gay for Nanaki?"

Leon's shoulders eased in relief and gave his younger brother a thankful smirk. "I was hoping you could help me on how I should go about asking him out."

"You should wait on that since you've only known him for a week," Roxas began immediately. Leon gave a confused frown, but Roxas continued on explaining why. "You two should just be friends for now and see if these feelings for the guy grow. 'Cause if you started dating now, what would happen later if your feelings for him grew, but he didn't feel the same about you? How would he feel?" The brunette gave an 'oh' face and nodded his head once slowly at the point Roxas was trying to make. "Same thing with him. You don't know what could happen if you two started dating now and later found out something about him that you didn't like; it could lead to destruction or something like that. I know dating is mostly used for getting to know each other, but it's more awkward than a friendship."

"I see," Leon murmured to himself, giving it some heavy thought. "You're right." He stood with a smile and ruffled blond locks. "Thanks, I'll try and hang out with him more often." He left and shut the door softly behind him, a small skip in his step now as he reached for the phone to call the guy they were just talking about.

Back in Roxas' room, he was back to lying down, his hands folded onto his stomach. "Well that was rather random and uncalled for." His stomach decided to growl then to agree with him, making the blond smile with a small laugh. The stomach growled again, only louder. "Quiet you; I feed you not too long ago."

"Wow, first it was talking to yourself, now it's talking to your stomach," a voice suddenly spoke above him.

Roxas sat up quickly when he heard the voice, glaring when he saw that it was only Axel. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Come in without me noticing!"

Axel shrugged and lied down next to the blond with a tired sigh. "Guess I'm just talented that way."

The blond rolled his eyes and bumped his knee against the goth's. "What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn't be done until around ten or something since you had janitorial today too." He too lied down with his hands back on his stomach while Axel's crossed behind his head.

"I asked Selphie if she could take my place for the night. Luckily I don't have janitorial every time I go to work." The tall teen worked on Sundays, Wednesday, and Fridays, and he sometimes had to clean up the place if someone couldn't do it or because he was already there. Usually it was because he was already there, but it gave him a little extra cash to spend. "I told her I had someone I wanted to spend it with. Of course she took it the wrong way and thought I was taking someone out on a date."

"Well yeah, if you said it like that," Roxas snickered, not at all surprised that Axel wanted to spend more time with him. "So what are we going to do tonight? It is Friday and we can stay up as late as we want…" He looked to the side where Axel lay just as the black/redhead did the same.

"Wanna come over to my house?" the older boy suddenly asked, surprising the blond.

Axel came over to his house plenty of times during his first week here and even helped his parents unpack the rest of their things. But Roxas had yet to go to the goth's. He's seen the outside of it, but had never seen the inside of it. Roxas thought that Axel never invited him was because the goth wasn't comfortable having people over until Demyx straightened that out by saying a lot of people go over to the older boy's house uninvited all the time. Now the blond was confused on why Axel hadn't been invited over yet until now.

The blond blinked before saying, "Uh, sure," stupidly, making Axel grin widely.

Axel stood and held out his hand for Roxas to grab, pulling the shorter teen up to his feet. "Good, 'cause I already asked your parents and they said yes." He dragged the blond downstairs before Roxas could say anything and the young teen found himself in Axel's truck, zipping up his coat that he had hastily put on. "Grandma is going out tonight with an old friend of hers and won't be back until late, and Kairi's going to spend the night at one of her girl friend's house. So, we'll have the house to ourselves pretty much."

Roxas didn't know if he should be scared or relieved about that; for now, he just went with relieved. He swallowed some of the mucus he felt caught in his throat and asked, "So your grandma hasn't left yet?"

"Nope! She wanted to meet you before leaving," the goth replied, the bright smile still etched on his face. They drove only one block before the older male turned down the road on his right called Bowpicker Ln. and drove into the driveway of the very last house on the left. It was a one story house with light brown paint and a small garage on the right side of it. The house looked rather small compared to Roxas', but the blond rather liked small homes than huge ones since there were less places for robbers to hide.

"I see. I kinda want to meet her too." Roxas jumped out of the truck and followed the black/redhead to the door, his nerves tingling from excitement. Axel opened the door and motioned for him to enter first, entering behind him and closing the door before taking off his shoes. The blond slipped off his shoes and let the taller teen lead him into the living room where two older women were having a deep conversation. They stopped when the boys entered.

"Oh good, you're home early just like you said," one of the women exclaimed as she stood up. Even though here hair was almost completely white, a few strawberry red strands were still seen, she looked in good health and had barely any wrinkles. Her eyes turned towards the blond and she immediately made her way over to him, catching him by surprise when she hugged him. "You must be the 'adorable Roxas' Axel keeps talking about!"

"Grandma!" Axel whined.

"Oh hush you; it took you long enough to finally invite him over here, so I get to torcher you as long as I want." The woman huffed before smiling back towards the younger teen. "I am Grandma Ellen, but you can call me grandma. And this is Carrie!"

"Hello," the other older woman greeted with a small smile. Her hair was completely white and she looked just as good as Ellen, but was a little taller.

"Now that I finally got to meet my son's new friend, I have a surprise for you Axel," Ellen said, her smile widening as she looked over Axel's shoulder.

Before Axel could turn around and see what it was, a pair of hands covered his eyes. "Guess who?" a voice breathed into his ear.

"Lea?" the black/redhead answered in surprise, a confused frown on his lips. He pulled the hands away and turned around to come face to face with a tall man with red spiky hair that was almost the same style as his but not as wild with the same green eyes. Axel's eyes widened and he was soon smiling and crying out in happiness at the sight of the older man as he hugged him. "I thought you weren't allowed out until next week!"

Roxas watched the little seen from the side, confused himself. He had heard Axel talk about his older brother Lea, but never said where he was or went into details about the older man. The blond never asked about it since Axel didn't like to talk much about his personal life, but the goth was becoming more open to him over the past week. However, he now wanted to ask where this Lea had been to make Axel so excited.

"They let me out for good behavior," Lea replied as he let go with a large grin.

"Good behavior, you?" Axel scoffed mockingly.

"Yes, it was quite difficult, but I had to because their food is so disgusting! And the guards suck… literally." The older brother blushed as he gazed up and away, his grin turning into an embarrassed smile. Their grandma was about to protest when Lea burst out laughing, the blush gone. "I'm joking! But it wouldn't surprise me if they really did… y'know."

Axel nodded in agreement. "Wouldn't surprise me either since police and guards, or whatever can get away with anything these days." The black/redhead shook his head in disgust. "So how was Wildwood?"

"What do you think? The food sucked, the guards were a bunch of prissy bitches, and the heating sucked," Lea scoffed. "What's there much to say about jail, except it's not pretty?"

Roxas' eyes widened when the word jail was uttered, but the others didn't seem at all affected by it, like it was a usual thing that happened. Axel, however, eased his mind with the next thing he said. "I wouldn't say jail pacifically, 'cause its more like a correction facility; you were there for only two months."

"And I'm never going back again! That place sucks, especially going there a second time!" the older brother gave an over exaggerated sigh and leaned his head against Axel's chest. "Don't make go back there Axel, that place is scary."

The goth rolled his eyes and pushed his brother away, eyes landing on the blond who was snickering at Lea's antics. "Oh yes, Lea, this is my new friend Roxas; he moved here from California," Axel said as he went to stand beside the smaller male, a hand on his shoulder. "And we're going snow machining tomorrow with Demyx and Zexy."

"Sweetness, I would come if I didn't have a date with Isa and it's nice to meet you Roxas," Lea greeted and shook the blond's hand just as Axel's eyes widened. By then, the two older women left with a few goodbyes that only fell on Roxas' ears, the two brothers too much in their conversation to really notice.

"You got a date with Isa? Blue haired, bitchy Isa?" the younger brother exclaimed, disbelief on his face; it was comical at the way he was staring at his older brother. "Didn't she come visit you every weekend to tell you off?"

Lea shrugged. "Yeah, but when I asked if she wanted to go out with me when I got out of Wildwood, she got all quiet and said yes before she left. She never came back and I called her right when I got home; so I'm taking her out tomorrow night. And tonight, I'm going to hang out with Saix and tell him the news that I'm dating his sister." He had a huge grin on his face after he had said this, already thinking about the look that would most likely be on Saix's face when the blue haired man heard what the redhead had to say.

"Saix's going to be upset once he finds out," Axel uttered with a snicker. "He can no longer pursue you anymore." He gave a mock sob and collapsed on Roxas' shoulder, surprising the blond. The young teen rolled his eyes as the black/redhead began to laugh at the face Lea was making.

"He is not pursuing me because he's not gay! I'm not gay either!"

"Oh yeah? Are you going over to his house and is Isa going to be there?"

"Yes and no…"

There was a pregnant pause for affect before Axel began to tap his fingers together and replied, "Be prepared to be ass raped my dear brother. Muwahahahahahah!" Axel gave a perfect impression of a villain's laugh, making Roxas snort as he tried to hold back his laughter while Lea's face paled in fear. "And don't even try to get out of this, you know how Saix gets."

"Stop it! You're creeping me out!" the older brother wailed in despair. He grabbed Axel's truck keys and ran out the door. "Saix is not gay and he's not pursuing me!" was the last thing he said before he shut the door.

The goth laughed once again, loving how he could creep his brother out without even trying to. "God, I love doing that." He let out a happy sigh as he began to look around the living room and attached kitchen, searching for something that he obviously couldn't find. "Huh, I guess g-ma and Carrie must have left, but where's Kitty?" He fell to his hands and knees and looked underneath the couches and other furniture, calling out his cat's name. "Kitty? Where is that damn cat? Puppy?"

Roxas heard small footsteps running down the hall before a small brown puppy came running out happily towards Axel, jumping into the black/redhead's arms. The puppy lavished his face with its tongue, which Axel turned his face away from. The little dog soon bounced out from the older male's arms and began to whine at him as it turned around to run down the hall a little ways, stopping and waiting for Axel to follow. Confused, Axel followed the dog all the way into his room, Roxas not too far behind, and in front of his closet that was opened. Upon looking down, the older boy's eyes widened at what he saw in the cardboard box that sat on the floor of his closet.

"Aww," Roxas cooed as he bent down onto his knees to have a closer look of what was inside. "Kitties!" he exclaimed in a girlish voice, almost looking like a little boy who found the best candy bar in the world. He reached a hand inside to pet the mother, who had lifted her head in curiosity, and let her sniff his hands before he began scratching her furry head. Soon after, he ran his index finger lightly down a tiny baby kitten's back as it nursed, cooing even more.

"You are such a girl," Axel scoffed lightly as he knelt beside him, scratching and petting Kitty's head. He only received a glare from Roxas that wasn't all that strong, but the taller boy ignored it as he looked down proudly at the mother. "You did good."

The glare softened into a small smile as Roxas watched Axel's facial expressions changed from happiness, joy, and pride. "You are so lucky you get to have pets. I can't because Leon has asthma and Sora's allergic to cats and dogs; mostly cats." The blond glanced back down at the now sleeping kittens when Axel looked up. "I love cats and would do anything to have one. I love rats too, but mom won't let me have one 'cause she thinks they're gross." He laughed when the puppy whined and nuzzled his hand to be petted.

"Hm, Demyx has a rat that Kitty loves to play and hang around with; they're like best friends. Zeek doesn't really like it though." Axel rolled his eyes when Zeek, the puppy, rolled over onto his back and looked up at Roxas begging to rub his tummy, which the smaller teen did so with a small grin. "He's so spoiled."

"He's cute," Roxas murmured as he picked up the fluff ball so he could hold him in his arms, rubbing his stomach again.

Axel's heart fluttered at the sight, causing him to blush lightly, but it soon disappeared when Zeek jumped out of the blond's arms and ran out of the bedroom. "So what do you want to do? We could watch movies, play video games, go out and have some fun…"

Roxas sat in thought. "Well, I guess we could watch a movie, but do you have any pistachios?" The blond looked up hopefully at the older teen, but soon slouched a little dejectedly when Axel shook his head. "Can we go to the store then?"

Axel nodded and stood up, holding out a hand for Roxas to grab so he could pull him up. "I guess I'll get some more strawberry milk and pocky while we're there." The two of them put on their coats and put on their shoes before Roxas remembered that Lea had left with Axel's truck. He didn't say anything though to see if the goth would remembered, but he didn't need to since Axel had grabbed his wallet and another set of keys and walked out into the garage to where a small blue sedan sat, waiting to be driven. "Grandma rode with Carrie and left the car to me if I wanted to drive, apparently incase Lea took my truck. And no sense in wasting gas."

Roxas hummed in agreement and slid into the passenger side of the car. Axel pushed the button on the remote that clung to the visor above his head, opening the garage door before he turned on the car, backing out almost perfectly down onto the road. They were soon headed towards town, crossing the memorial bridge over the Kenai River that was covered in a thin layer of ice. The two talked a little on their way over to the store as the blond gazed out the window, not seeing much since it was dark out.

"You and Lea look so much alike," Roxas said suddenly as they turned into Carrs' parking lot, still looking out the window so he missed the smile on Axel's face as they parked close to the entrance. "Probably more so if you didn't wear so much make-up." He slid out of the car and smirked at the goth, who gave a mock glare.

"Oh shut up, I like the way I look," Axel scoffed.

"And I guess that's a good thing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the black/redhead asked skeptically, eyes narrowing after the blond, who was making his way across the parking lot and into the store.

"Nothing! Nothing at all," the small teen replied, keeping his face blank when the other gazed at his face questioningly. "Where will I find the pistachios?" He mentally snickered when the goth rolled his eyes good naturally and pointed towards the left side of the store where the food and vegetables were.

"Down that way. I'll meet up with you after I collect my own things. Do you have money with you?" Axel watched the blond's eyes widen and began to search his pockets frantically. "Don't worry about it; I'll pay."

Roxas stopped his searching and looked at the older teen with a guilty expression. "Are you sure? You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, no, I don't mind." He gave the blond a reassuring smile and pushed Roxas in the direction where his pistachios were as he made his way towards the dairy section for his precious strawberry milk, which Roxas found rather odd by the way. _Strawberry _milk? Milk in general? It was hard for the young teen to picture Axel's favorite drink being strawberry milk; he seemed so, what's the word, bad ass… in his own nice way. And yet, here he was, getting his favorite drink which so happened to be that pink creamy stuff in a bottle.

Roxas shook his head as he made his way to the end of the store, passing by stalls of apples, peaches and pears, plumbs, bananas, until he potted his delicious pistachios sitting next to the peanuts. He grabbed the cheapest, largest bag and almost hugged it in happiness, but refrained himself as he went to go find Axel. He found the black/redhead in the Oriental section of the store talking to some blond, spiky haired man with light blue eyes and pale skin. The man was wearing sweats and black hoodie, a tired look on his face.

"Yup," Roxas heard the blond man say as he walked closer to the two. "It's in March on the 15th; I'll give you and your fam some tickets if you want to see it."

"Hells yeah I want to see it! Virgean's Dance Studio shows are so cool, especially since you're one of their teachers," Axel exclaimed excitedly, clutching his drink and his snack tightly just as Roxas came up beside him. It took him a second to realize that the small blond was beside him until he noticed the older man's gaze wasn't upon him anymore… and Roxas cleared his throat.

"Roxas I'm guessing?" the man asked as gazed at the younger blond, eyeing him.

Roxas nodded. "How'd you know?"

The man shrugged. "Lucky guess, maybe, and it did help that Axel was telling me all about how you were staying with him tonight." He smiled from beside his cart that was filled with vegetables, fruit, frozen food, and lunchables. "I'm Cloud-"

"Zack's husband," Roxas finished. "Right?" He received a small nod and smiled in return. "It's nice to meet you, finally; Zack won't stop talking about you and your son Denzel whenever he's around. But I don't mind since he's obviously trying to show off his great catch." He winked at the older blond, making Cloud blush and laugh in embarrassment. Axel was surprised by the other's boldness and rather liked it.

"Oh Zack, that dork," Cloud sighed out, shaking his head. "I better finish so I can go home and make sure those two haven't ruined the house while I was gone. Nice meeting you Roxas."

"You too."

"See ya, Cloud," Axel said as the older male grabbed his cart and turned it around to go down another isle. The goth looked down at the younger teen, who was looking right back up at him. "You ready?"

"Yep."

The two of them went to the express checkout lane and as the cashier checked their items, Axel was tapping down some numbers where you slid your card and the total price went down a few dollars. Roxas gave the other a confused gaze and followed the older teen back to the car, passing by Cloud on the way out.

"What did you do?" Roxas asked as he slid into the car, their bag of goodies in his lap.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"What you did back there, when you put down all those numbers on the pad thing."

"Oh! I just put my phone number down because my dad has a club card."

The blond lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "Club card?"

Axel nodded. "Yup. You saw those yellow prices on some of the stuff, right?" He paused and waited for Roxas to nod his head before continuing. "The yellow tags tell you that you can pay for less if you have a club card. If you do have a club card, you just put you phone number down and prices will lower. Pretty cool, eh?"

Roxas shrugged. "I guess." There was silence in the car for a few minutes as the goth drove back to his house. "So what were you and Cloud talking about before I came in?"

"Nothing really. I was telling him about how you were staying over at my place tonight before he told me about his upcoming show," Axel said excitedly, a wide grin on his face. "Gonna be awesome!" he sang. "Cloud is like the best dance instructor I've ever met and he makes some of the coolest dances ever! Denzel's taking a couple of classes with him and he's getting really good, especially for being 12."

Roxas rolled his eyes at how bubbly and anxious the other was becoming just by talking about it, but he smiled at how happy the goth was, making him chuckle. "Why don't you dance?" he asked, making Axel almost stop the car abruptly and gave the blond a shocked look.

"Me? No way, dancing is not my thing; I only like watching it." They had passed the bridge and were now at the stop light, ready to turn right when it was safe. "I'm not one that likes doing things that requires a lot of energy as you can tell by my lack of muscles." He turned down several roads to get to his house, opening the garage door and pulled in before shutting it again. "The only part of my body that has muscles are my arms and legs."

"I know, I know," Roxas snorted in amusement as he shut his door, following the goth inside the house. "Because of archery and walking. I have yet to see you shoot any bows and you still say you're the best at it. How can I be so sure you are when I haven't seen you do it yet?" He lifted an eyebrow as he set the bag down on the table, smirking as he gazed at the taller teen.

Axel only stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry before grabbing his stuff and marched down the hallway and into his room. Roxas followed after him after he grabbed his bag of pistachios, closing the door behind him once he was in Axel's room. The black/redhead was crouched down on the floor in front of his movie shelf that stood next to the TV on his dresser in his long closet, trying to choose which movie that Roxas would like to watch. While Axel did that, Roxas sat down on the older boy's bed and gazed around the room.

The bed, for starters, was only two mattresses on the floor with no bedframe or anything on the other side of the room, just underneath the window and laid down vertically with it and pressed up against the wall. On the other side of the bed was a chest that was being used as a night stand, considering there was a lamp on top with Axel's laptop and a few other things. The light blue walls were covered in posters that were of games and different rock bands, drawings of different scenery and people, and pictures that were mostly likely of other friends or family members. At the foot of the bed stood a shelf pressed up against the wall that held comic books, regular books, and books that Roxas had no idea what they were.

"Here we are!" Axel's voice startled Roxas from his musings. The older boy held up a movie so Roxas could see it and approve. The title on it said Hetalia with a couple of cartoon characters that were drawn differently from what the blond was used to seeing. "Want to watch this?"

"What is it?" Roxas asked as he took the case from the goth to get a closer look. He pulled out the DVD case from the box it was in and opened it. There were only two disks inside, one with episodes one and up while the other had special features. The blond gave the other a questioning gaze when the goth gasped exaggeratedly with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"You don't know what Hetalia is? How could this be? How could anyone not know the best anime show ever?"

"Anime?"

Axel's eyes widened further as his jaw slackened. "You-you-you don't know what anime is either? This will not do!" The goth took the DVD from the blond's hands and put the disk into the DVD player after turning on the TV. "You are going to sit down and watch this and then, we are going to watch _Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Mushishi, Bleach, _and any other anime show I can think of!"

Roxas gazed at the black/redheaded boy as if he were insane, but kept quiet and watched the DVD that would soon become his favorite show than any other he had seen.

LINE-BREAK

Morning came and both boys were heavily asleep from staying up very late and watching any kind of anime that Axel could get his hands on. They had fallen asleep while watching an episode of _Wallflower_, tangled up together beneath the heavy comforter. Axel was on the very edge of the bed and was on the urge of falling off if Roxas, who was pressed tightly against the goth's chest, so happened to move suddenly. It wasn't Roxas, however, that made Axel fall off the bed that morning; it just so happened to be a loud and excited neighbor barging into the goth's room unexpectedly.

"Good morning my lovelies!" a loud voice boomed, surprising Axel and making him fall off the bed, bringing the blanket with him and leaving Roxas to wake to cold air. "Hurry up and eat so we go snow machining!"

Axel sat up and yawned tiredly while he stretched before climbing back into bed to fall asleep again, only to land onto of Roxas, who grunted at the sudden weight on top of him. Axel shot up from the noise, looking down at the blond in confusion while he straddled small hips. It took him a minute to remember that Roxas had spent the night last night and that both had fallen asleep while watching _Wallflower._ He slid off of Roxas and stood up, giving another yawn and stretch before giving the trespasser a glare.

"Demyx, what the hell?" he groaned tiredly while the dirty blond bounced on his toes. He changed his glare towards the clock and saw that it was 12:40 PM, giving a low groan as he flopped back onto his bed and across Roxas' legs, making the small blond yelp and remove his legs from underneath the goth, sitting up to give Axel a glare. "I'm totally not going out today, too tired…"

Demyx rolled his eyes and pounced on the goth, straddling the goth's waist. "Oh come on, you're the one who planned this last week. And if you don't get up now, you won't know how my and Marluxia's date went last night."

"Why should I care?" came the weak reply, arm over green eyes to keep out the light that bleed through the blinds. "Just the regular 'take Demyx out to dinner' date, nothing new about that."

"Hm, what if I said the rest of the night was very, _very_ passionate?"

Roxas' eyes snapped opened from where he laid against the wall, trying to fall asleep again, while Axel jerked himself into a sitting position with wide eyes as well, almost bumping his head against the dirty blond's chest. Demyx had a smirk of triumph on his face when had he Axel's full attention, the goth now wide awake and interested in his nighttime activities. Axel waited impatiently for the tall blond to tell him more when Demyx only sat there with a smug grin before he smacked the older blond upside the head.

"Well? Tell me already! Did you guys do the deed yet or what?" the black/redhead asked hurriedly.

"Mhm, we sure did."

Roxas' eyes widened impossibly more, wondering if he should be listening to this.

"And? Tell me the details!"

Demyx rolled his eyes as he stood up, arms crossed over his stomach. "Well, he didn't take me out on a date; instead, he took me to his home and we had dinner there before we watched a movie… didn't really get to see much of it when his tongue was shoving itself down my throat." He took in deep breath as he closed his eyes, a smile spreading across his face. "Soon enough, we were taking each other's clothes off and he was asking me the question if I was ready. Oh lord, he was so good." He spun around and hummed in agreement with himself.

The small blond sat there with a slack jaw, wondering if should leave now. It didn't matter anyway, though, his virgin ears were now taken and there was no sense in going now. Better listen to rest of it or else he'd be up all night wondering what the end of the story was, although it was embarrassing.

"What position did you take?" Axel asked, laying back against the wall, head leaning against the windowsill. Roxas' blue eyes turned towards him, still wide and in shock on how these two were comfortable talking about this sort of stuff to each other.

The dirty blond thought for a second. "Well, first-"

"First?"

"We did it missionary style, like all lovers do with their first time… I think. The second time, we did it standing up in the middle of his living room; him thrusting up into me as I leaned back against him." Demyx bit his bottom lip and shivered in pleasure. "And finally, the third-"

"Third?"

"I rode him. It took about four hours to do all that and it was so _good!_" Demyx finished the story, a satisfied grin on his face, eyes shining with happiness. "I never knew sex would feel so good and he was so gentle with me for my first time." Humming in delight, the tall blond straddled Axel's legs. "So when are you going to find a girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever?"

Axel scoffed. "Me, with someone? Pfft! Yeah right? Like anyone would want to go out with me. Besides, I don't think I want to be tied down yet."

"Tied down? Are you saying that you don't want someone in your life because you think you're being tied down?" Demyx asked in bewilderment, hands on his hips as he pouted. "How absurd! I'm not being tied down."

"That's because Marluxia isn't clingy, whiny, or bitchy. That's your job."

"I am not clingy, whiny, or bitchy! Just… attach…able."

The goth rolled his eyes and blew a piece of hair away from his face. "Just another word for clingy." He smirked at the pout he was given. "But I'm sure he loves you for it."

"Sure. Now get up and get ready so when can go!" Demyx was up and out of the room in record time, closing the door with a loud bang.

Axel could only shake his head with an amused grin, standing up to get ready. He looked over to where Roxas was sitting with a dazed look in his wide eyes, mouth shut in tight line. Oh… right, Roxas was still here when they had that conversation; poor virgin Roxas had to listen through all that! "Hey, uh, you ready for today?"

Roxas blinked out of his daze and looked up at Axel confusedly. "Hm?"

"Are you ready for today," the black/redhead repeated.

"Yeah, I guess."

The older boy motioned towards a bag near his closet, telling him to go look through it. "Some of my old clothes are in there and I'm sure there's something in your size in there; just don't disturb the kitties."

The blond rolled his eyes and began to dig through the garbage bag full of clothing that smelt freshly washed.

* * *

**Lou-pie: sorry about the long… long wait. Haven't been in a typing mood lately, but I've been pushing myself to get this done. I hope you liked this chapter and review to let me know if I should keep going. Oh! I also need to ask if someone would like to be my beta for this story. I need someone else's help and advice in this; I would really appreciate it!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Lou-pie: I like how this story is going so far, and I can tell that some of you readers are enjoying it as well, but I'm not getting as many hits as I am with Blood Lust. Oh well, I guess people like reading FF7 more than KH (shrugs). And I'm still looking for a Beta for this story if anyone's interested, I would really appreciate it. Looking for a job in Alaska SUCKS, 'cause there's practically nothing here and with Conoco Phillips going out of business, there's going to be a lot of people look for jobs during the summer. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Rating: PG-NC17**

**Pairing: Axel/Roxas, now mentioned Marluxia/Demyx**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Prepare for fun and truth**

****Axel was done dressing in the bathroom and eating a bowl of chocolate pebbles when Roxas finally emerged from the goth's room, dressed up in his new clothes that Axel had given him. The black/redhead raised an eyebrow at the fashion the blond had chosen to wear today, finding his clothing on the other rather nice. A pair of old washed out blue jeans that he only wore once years ago fit the young teen perfectly and almost looked new from the lack of usage. Another article of clothing that Axel only wore once or twice was the checkered jacket and it looked like something Roxas would wear. Underneath it, the blond wore a worn out, faded grey T-shirt with a black hand doing a peace sign, the palm in the shape of Africa.

"I must say, you look rather hot in my clothing," Axel said from where he sat at the table before putting the bowl to his lips so he could drink the left over milk that had turned chocolaty from the cereal.

"Thanks, if I hadn't known you, I would think that you were coming onto me," the blond was quick to reply, smirking when the goth sputtered around the edge of the bowl and coughed when the liquid fell down the wrong tube. He loved how he could ruffle Axel's feathers while the goth could do the same with him. The blond's friendship with him was rather different from Zexion's and Demyx's with Axel; they got along more easily and so quickly, and Roxas was able to come up with something smart to banter back whenever the time called for it.

"Nice one," Demyx applauded from where he sat on the couch, across from Grandma Ellen, who was laughing up a storm at the look on Axel's face he was giving Roxas while he was coughing. "But I do have to agree with Axel, you do look rather sexy. Especially in that jacket; you look so much better in it than Axel did."

"Hey now," the goth wheezed, eyes watering. "Let's not dis the guy who bought that." He gave one last cough and drank the rest of his milk from his bowl. "Damn," he hissed when he sniffed, grabbing a tissue from the middle of the table and blew his nose, wincing when some reddish/brownish milk came out. "Let's hope I don't have a bloody nose from this," he said from behind the tissue before he pulled it away and grimaced at what he had snorted out. He threw the tissue away and sniffed again, smelling blood, but nothing was coming out so he was all good.

"If I had known that was gonna happen, I would have waited until you were finished," Roxas mumbled, giving Axel an apologetic smile.

The black/redhead shook his head with a smile of his own. "Nah, I probably deserved it from how many times I tease you." He waved it off as he put his empty dishes in the dishwasher. "Do you have any snow gear yet?"

"Just a hat, gloves, and boots," the blond answered with a confused frown. "Why?"

"Just needed to know so that I could go and find some snow pants that would fit you." Axel sauntered over towards the shoe closet that also held extra jackets and snow gear and began his search. While he was doing this, Roxas decided to take the time and look around the living room, eyes looking over random pictures of Axel, Zexion, and Demyx of their younger years. He stopped, however, when his eyes fell upon a certain picture that sat on top of a small self littered with other pictures.

Picking up the photo incased in a plastic frame with a stand, Roxas held it to his face and flushed at the rather lovely lady that was staring right back him. The woman looked to be in her late twenties with dark, olive skin, dark and short brown hair, and hazel green eyes with a tinge of brown near the pupil. The only part of her that was shown was from just below her shoulders up, just a little of her white gloved encased hand and the red, fake silky scarf showing at the bottom of the frame. The blond sat the photo down and crouched on his haunches to look at the other pictures of her, some in her wedding dress, and some standing next to a man with the same dark brown hair, but he was rather pale and had brown eyes, the top of his head balding.

Roxas then noticed that the woman's pictures took up the left side of the self while pictures of the man took up the right side with two candles near the middle. His head jerked to the side when Axel suddenly sat next to him, a sad smile on his face as he picked up the picture that Roxas had held before.

"She's beautiful," the young teen murmured, wondering why he was telling Axel that. "Who is she?"

"My mom," was the simple reply, making Roxas do a double take of the picture and Axel.

"… Are you sure?"

This had the goth laughing gently at the face the blond was making. "I know, it's hard to believe. She's really my biological mom and he's my dad." He picked up the picture of the man and woman standing beside each other with large smiles on their faces, happy of their wedding day. "Lea, Kairi, and I always had a hard time believing they were when we got older because we hardly look like them. We get our hair and green eyes from grandma."

Roxas nodded before he took the picture from Axel's hands and held up next to the side of the goth's face as well as a picture of his father on the other side of his face, looking from the black/redhead to the pictures. "Well, you have your dad's skin, your mom's facial features and eye shapes, your dad's neck, your dad's body frame, and your mom's height I believe." He had seen a picture of the two parents standing next to each other and the woman was a few inches higher than the man.

Axel's eyes widened while the pictures were taken away and sat back down, his hands clenching on his lap. "Really? You can see all that?" His green eyes were alight with joy and hope as he gazed down into sincere blue eyes.

The blond nodded with a larger smile, which was soon replaced with surprise when he was engulfed in a rather tight hug, long arms almost wrapping around him twice. Roxas soon returned the hug just as tightly when he felt the other shake against him, a small smile growing on his face. When he was let go, he looked up into Axel's smiling face, no tear in sight, though his eyes were a just a tiny bit watery. From the side, Demyx watched with a gently grin, his own eyes watering up. Ellen had left for somewhere else in the house when Axel was searching for some snow pants and had missed the little touching scene.

"Thanks," the goth muttered under his breath, trying to keep control of himself as he got up, a pair of thick pants in his hand that had been forgotten. "Oh, and you can have these; they don't fit me anymore." He handed the snow pants to the blond, who took them gratefully, and went back to the closet to grab his own snow gear.

Demyx, after wiping his eyes, stood up and kept his voice from wavering as he said, "Zexion called and said to meet him at the sand pit close to Albatross." He gave himself a pat on the back when his voice was calm and didn't sound forced.

Axel shrugged as he sat down and began the process of pulling on his snow gear. "Okay dokay. Use whatever you want in to closet Roxas; I'm sure we have plenty of boots, gloves, heavy coats, and hats in there for you." He was now slipping on his own boots, pulling the heavy pants over them so the snow wouldn't be able to get in when Roxas made his way over and began pulling out some things that would fit him.

LINE-BREAK

Roxas clung for dear life onto Axel as the goth sped down the trail next to the highway towards their destination on Axel's large yellow snow mobile, not exactly sure how much horse power this thing had but he didn't care and hoped that the older male wouldn't kill them. Before they had left the black/redhead's house, Axel had to find him a helmet that wasn't too small or too big before finding him some goggles, which were much easier to find. The blond ended up wearing Kairi's helmet, which was blue (thank goodness!), but was still rather girly looking.

Roxas wasn't worried about his looks at the moment though.

Demyx was riding his own snowmobile that he had rode over to Axel's house and was driving in front of them, standing up, a little hunched over. Roxas was thankful Axel didn't standup as well and continued to cling onto him with his arms wrapped around the goth's thin waist. The dirty blond took a sharp turn down a back road and suddenly disappeared down into a pit, only to appear farther away on top of some hill in the rather large sand pit (snow pit, rather, since there was no sand to be seen, duh). Axel followed after him, but not as sharply or as fast, but the downward and upward motion did frighten the younger teen quite a bit since he couldn't see anything since he was clung to the other's back.

They stopped next to Demyx, who had shut off his machine and was talking to Zexion, who was sitting down sideways on his own mobile. Zexion's helmet was missing and the dirty blond's was soon missing too, sitting on the seat of his machine. Axel shut his off and unlatched his helmet from his head as he made his way over to the two, Roxas behind him but he kept his helmet on. Zexion smiled at them, looking rather adorable in his dark blue hat and fluffy coat.

"Took you guys long enough," he greeted. He welcomed the hug that Demyx gave him and returned it.

"You were probably already here when you texted us," Axel scoffed, though he had a smile on his face. "So where to?"

"Let's go to the beach!" Demyx yelled excitedly before putting his helmet back on and jumping onto his snow mobile, riding off without another word.

Zexion shrugged. "I guess it's the beach then." He put on his own helmet, starting the engine and waiting for the others. Axel and Roxas did the same and they followed Zexion back in the direction that they came from, only they passed by their houses and took a left towards Cannery Road. They crossed the street when it was safe and followed the rather bumpy trial to the right.

Roxas held on tightly so as to not be thrown off and almost cried out when Axel took a sharp turn down a small road that led to the beach that the goth had told him about days ago. The blond had yet to go down this way and was surprised at what he saw when they finally reached it. There were chunks of ice littering the beach that was covered in snow, more ice chunks could be seen out in the ocean as well, and Demyx could be seen climbing up one of the many large ice blocks on the beach, Zexion right behind him.

Axel shut off his machine, took off his helmet, and made his way towards his friends with Roxas not too far behind him. However, once Roxas took one step away from the machine, he slipped and fell down onto his ass. A thin layer of snow was covering the ice that was all around him, giving him the suspicion that everything around them was practically ice, even the very ground Axel and the others had walked on. Where the water met the land, there was a drop off, which meant that sand was beneath layer upon layers of ice, most likely from the ocean's waves coming back and forth from the land.

Standing up, Roxas groaned and made his way towards the other slowly so as to not slip again. The three were already sitting on top of the large ice piece and were now waiting for the small blond, who was cautiously making his way up. Axel quickly grabbed Roxas' hand before the blond could fall and hurriedly pulled him up the rest of the way. The ice thing they were sitting on was quite jagged and unleveled that it made the smaller teen wonder how all four of them could fit up here without falling or slipping. But… considering that all three of the boys had lived here for most of their lives, it wasn't surprising that Axel, Demyx, and Zexion knew what they were doing.

Finally seated and in a place where Roxas knew he wouldn't fall, Roxas looked out towards the ocean, noticing how the beach curved on both sides of him a long ways away before disappearing. And from far away straight out towards the ocean, Roxas could barely see the tips of a mountain range. They were either in a peninsula or he was looking out towards an inlet. Curious, he poked Axel for his attention.

"Hm?" the goth questioned as he turned his head towards the blond beside him.

"Is that an inlet I'm looking at or are we a peninsula?"

"Both actually," Axel answered with a small grin. "What you're looking at is the Cook Inlet and the land that we're on is the Kenai Peninsula. How'd you guess about the peninsula when you can see land all around us, even way out there?"

Roxas shrugged. "Don't know. I did look at a map of Alaska, but not for very long. It just came to me." He hummed as he continued to look towards the mountains far away. "Why is the inlet called the Cook Inlet?"

"Because Captain James Cook found it himself while he was trying to look for the Northern Passage-or something like that," Demyx answered this time, looking over his shoulder to give Roxas a bright grin. "He also found Turnagainarm. It's that long stretch of water that comes from the ocean when you're coming from Anchorage. He went in there thinking it was a path through Alaska, but then had to turn around when he found it was a dead end, hence the name Turn-again-arm."

Roxas hummed as he rested his arms and head on his raised knees. "Enough of the history lesson, I'm sure I'll be learning that in history sometime. But really, Captain Cook? I have heard of the story of him coming to Alaska and all, but not the whole thing."

"Hn, Alaska isn't all that interesting to learn about," Axel mumbled, only to be elbowed in the back by Zexion.

"Only because we live here, fucktard," the slate haired boy stated, though he had a slight smile on his face.

_I got chocolate bubblegum!_

The sudden, robotic, cute voice startled Roxas out of his musings and turned towards the noise, only to see Zexion pull out his phone from his pants underneath his snow gear. He looked at the text that was sent to him, before texting back, his fingers flying over the keyboard on the phone. Demyx curiously looked over his shoulder to see what the slate haired teen was doing only to be shoved back before the dirty blond could see anything.

"Who was that?" Axel asked as he leaned back on his hands, head tilted back so he could look at Zexion.

"…Xion," Zexion answered after a few hesitations.

"Xion?" both Demyx and Axel questioned, though the goth seemed a little more interested than Demyx.

"How is she? We haven't spoken to her in a while," Axel uttered worriedly, a look of hope shining in his eyes that made Roxas feel a little twinge of envy in his heart for some reason.

Zexion shrugged. "She said she was doing fine and just moved back into her old home in Kenai with her mom. She said she was going over to your house today if it was alright with you."

"Of course she could come over!"

"Good, 'cause I already sent a message that she could."

Axel practically let out a squeal and quickly made his way down the ice chunk and over towards his snow machine, completely forgetting about Roxas. The small blond watched in shock as the goth suddenly left him, his helmet flying off the seat and into the snow bank where the snow mobile was parked next to. He blinked several times as his he closed his mouth, irritation welling up in him. Demyx and Zexion gave Roxas apologetic looks and offered him a ride back to Axel's house or to his own home. He took Zexion's offer back to the goth's house since he needed his shoes and he was curious of whom this 'Xion' was to make the black/redhead forget about the blond in seconds.

LINE-BREAK

The three of them made it back to Axel's house and went inside, hoping to find something warm to drink and something to eat. When Roxas walked into the living room after taking off all his snow gear, he was going to give Axel a piece of his mind until he saw a young girl with short, black hair and dark blue eyes sitting on the recliner across from the older teen. The both of them looked up when Roxas walked in, a look of aggravation was on his face as he gazed at Axel.

The older teen gave a confused look back at why he was so angry until he dawned on him. "Oh my god, Roxas, I am so sorry," he exclaimed as he stood up with a look of sheer guilt.

"Yeah, just leave me why don't ya," Roxas replied with sarcasm dripping from his voice, crossing his arms over his chest as he tried to keep up an angry wall. The look the goth was giving him, though, made it rather difficult.

"I am so very, very sorry." Axel got on his knees and hugged the blond's legs while looking up with a small smile that said 'forgive me?' Behind them, Demyx and Zexion were snickering at Axel's actions as was the girl.

Feeling embarrassed, Roxas sighed with a cocky grin to cover it up with a raised eyebrow. "Fine, you ass." The older teen's eyes widened when he finally heard the blond curse, a look of giddiness seen in his eyes as he hugged the legs tighter. "But if you do it again, I can't be held responsible for my actions."

Axel chuckled as he stood. "Ooooh, is Roxas gonna spank me if I'm bad?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

Roxas raised a finger to his chin as his other arm wrapped around his body beneath his raised elbow. "Hmmm, sounds tempting. Maybe if I had a wooden spoon or a belt, hands don't do a load of good now that we're older." He chuckled evilly when Axel gulped and a look of fear could be seen on his face.

The girl blushed at the thought of Axel bent over the blond's knees, being spanked bear bottomed by a wooden spoon. Her blush went unnoticed by others. Feeling a little left out, she replied, "I think that just might turn him on rather than take it as a punishment." Everyone turned towards her when she said this and the two bantering boys blushed in embarrassment. "Hey Demyx and Zexion."

"Hey Xion," the two boys said together, both having a small smile on their faces as they sat on the couch where Axel once sat. So this was Xion, nothing much to her but she was kind of adorable.

"And who is this? A new friend of my dear boy Axel?" She giggled when the black/redhead flushed when called 'dear boy.'

"I'm Roxas," the small blond introduced himself. "Are you his…" He trailed off, leaving the others confused, but Xion caught on what he was trying to say.

"Oh, ew, no. Now way. He's just a brother… sorta." She giggled again when Axel understood what the smaller boy was trying to say and gave a disgusted look. "So are you from around here?"

"Actually no, I'm from California. My family and I just moved here about a week ago."

"I see."

"He's Ventus' twin brother, the one I've told you about a while ago," Axel said this time from where he stood. "She left a week before Ventus arrived and I've told her all about him through email and phone calls," he quickly added when Roxas gave him an a confused look.

"Yeah, but you never sent me any pictures and you know I don't like those social network things," the girl huffed and crossed her arms.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting." Axel gave the other an apologetic look and sat down beside her on the arm of the chair to give her a hug, which she did not return because of her annoyance. He opened his mouth to say something more when Roxas' cell began to jingle some cute tune.

The small blond gave a small eye roll as he took out his cell and pressed talk. "Hello? Oh, hey… uh, sure, sounds nice." Roxas rocked on his heels as he listened to whoever was talking on the other line. "Ok, I'll ask." He covered the speaker with his hand and looked at Axel, who was talking to Xion again. "Hey guys, my mom wants to know if you would like to come over and have a late lunch with us."

Zexion and Demyx were immediately on their feet and next to the small teenager before he could complete the sentence. Axel thought about it, looked at Xion, who nodded, and got up to follow the younger boy out the door with Xion behind him. The goth gave everyone a ride in his truck with Roxas and Xion in the front while the other two rode in the back.

LINE-BREAK

Everyone strode into the garage so they wouldn't get any snow inside the house and left their shoes next to the garage door as well as their coats. Roxas' mother was in the kitchen by the stove, the smell of homemade chicken noodle soup wafting into their noses. She greeted them with a large smile and told them to get comfortable while she finished lunch. Axel couldn't help but give the woman a quick hug, something he always did whenever he saw her; it was a sign that he truly did enjoy Roxas' family. When the goth finished his hug, he introduced Xion to Laura… and that's when things started to get ugly.

"Xion?" Riku's voice echoed from the living room before he appeared from behind the wall that separated the kitchen and the living room. His eyes widened when they landed on the girl standing next to Roxas' mom before becoming blank, a slight frown on his face. Sora peeked over from the silver haired teen's side curiously, oblivious at the look Riku was giving Xion.

"Riku! I-I didn't know you knew them," Xion stuttered, looking away with a guilty look that only Roxas and Riku caught. "I-um… can I talk to you? Alone?" She frowned when the pale boy didn't answer and walked away towards Sora's room, giving a look over his shoulder for her to follow. Axel was about to protest, but Zexion stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head.

A cloud of awkwardness fell over the small crowd in the kitchen, especially with the angry look Axel was giving as he looked out the large windows in the living room. Roxas rolled his eyes and had everyone follow him into the other room so they could watch some TV while Laura finished her cooking. The others were glad for the distraction, but not Axel; he was still glaring, but at the TV this time as he leaned back against the couch, causing the small blond to roll his eyes at the other's attitude. Roxas was curious towards the black/redhead's behavior and wanted to know why he was acting this way.

After a few more minutes, Axel decided that he had waited enough and made his way upstairs where Riku and Xion were. His hand twitched though and stopped from grabbing the door knob when he heard Riku's angry voice, pressing his ear against the door so he could hear better.

"-lied to Axel about what really happened and now he hates my guts because of you!" he heard the silver haired teen almost yell. "I know you did it because you were scared of what Axel's reactions might have been when he saw that you had slept with me, but you didn't have to make it like it's completely my fault. You were the one who seduced me in the first place!"

Axel's eyes widened when he heard this, surprise, anger, hurt, and sadness welling up inside him. He opened the door with his face clear of any expressions, but his eyes held fury when they looked down at the sitting Xion on the floor.

"Axel!" the two of them cried out in surprise.

?

"What do you want, Xion?" Riku asked as he sat down on Sora's bed after closing the door, a bubbly feeling welling up inside him as he smelt the younger boy's scent waft into his nose from the sheets. Anger over powered it, though, when he remembered Xion and why they were here in the first place.

"I wanted to apologize," she quickly answered without looking up from where she sat on the floor.

"For what, exactly? Why would you be apologizing to me when you're not the one that's being hated?" Riku stood up while he said this before he sat down again, clamping his mouth shut and looking away from the girl.

Xion looked down in shame as she played with the edge of her shirt. "I didn't mean for it to turn out like that when Axel suddenly barged in on us. I said whatever came to mind. Please believe me that I didn't mean all those things that I said! I was just afraid of what Axel might have done to me!"

"What are you talking about? Axel's one of the nicest people we've ever met and yet you left right after you said those things so you didn't have to face me or him. Not only did you hurt me, you lied to Axel about what really happened and now he hates my guts because of you!" he almost yelled, having a hard time keeping himself under control. "I know you did it because you were scared of what Axel's reactions might have been when he saw that you had slept with me, but you didn't have to make it like it's completely my fault. You were the one who seduced me in the first place!"

Right after he said that, the door suddenly burst open and an angry Axel stood in front of it, a look of fury in his eyes while his face was blank. However, all that anger was directed towards Xion, which surprised Riku.

"Axel!" the two younger teens cried out in surprise, standing up when the door closed.

It was silent for a few moments so Axel could calm himself down enough that he was sure he wouldn't yell. "Xion… you lied to me about what really happened when I caught you in Riku's bed?" His face was still void of any emotion and his eyes were staring off towards the side, a little unsure of himself if he could look at the girl right now.

The dark haired teen fiddled with her thumbs, looking down towards the floor. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough…"

"… I only did it because I thought I would lose our friendship so I said something that came out wrong."

Axel jerked his head around to look at Xion, his face scrunched up in anger. "You didn't want to lose our friendship? But you left! You left the week after that happened without saying a word to me or anyone else for that matter! You lied to me and that's one thing I can't stand the most: liars. Not only that, you hurt Riku and made me hurt Riku as well. Because of you, I physically hurt him and broke our friendship!" He stopped when he saw Xion crying and took a deep breath to calm down and think rationally, feeling a little bad about yelling at the grief stricken girl.

Even the silver haired teen was a little surprised to hear the goth yell at the small, weak teen. It had been years since he last saw the taller boy angry like this and it was towards him. Riku stood up from the bed to stand next to Axel, hoping that the black/redhead wouldn't push him away and was glad to see that he had calm down now and was regretting what he said to Xion.

"Axel," Riku began, gaining his attention. "Look, I can see why you're angry and I was too, but seeing her cry is just…"

"I know," the goth interrupted. "I feel like shit for saying all that stuff now even though it's true." Axel glanced towards Xion, who was using her sleeve to wipe her eyes and nose, and walked over to her. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "No, I should be the one apologizing. I said all those things and broke your friendship. I would understand if you guys don't want to be my friend anymore." She sniffed and took several deep breaths to regulate her breathing.

"I still want to be your friend, but I think that won't be happening anytime soon," Axle replied honestly, surprising both of the younger teens. Usually, Axel was very forgiving when he got the whole story, but hearing him say this must have really affected him. "Even though I apologized for yelling, I'm still angry with you Xion and every time I look at you now… I want to yell at you for what you did." You could tell he wasn't lying from the strain you could see on his face to hold himself back.

"I understand," Xion murmured sadly. When Riku gave her an apologetic grin, she felt a little better that she and Riku were on friendly terms now even though they wouldn't become friends again for a long time. She left the two and said her goodbyes to the others in the living room, leaving quickly so she wouldn't have to answer anyone's questions that she could see on their faces.

Back in Sora's room, Axel was giving Riku a look of pure sadness and guilt, sorry for what he had done to the younger boy in the past. But when Riku smiled a little shyly, Axel knew their friendship wasn't completely over. Even when the goth declared their friendship over years ago, he didn't completely cut off ties with him; he still wanted the smaller boy to be his friend, but his stubbornness and what happened with Xion kept him from going back to Riku and begging him to be his friend again.

Axel got down on his knees and hugged Riku's legs with his head pressing against the silver haired boy's stomach, surprising the other. "Please, please, please, pleeeeease forgive me for acting like a shithead to you. I'm so fucking sorry!" He gave a small, cutesy pout up at Riku, making the pale teen roll his eyes and laugh.

"Fine. But you're gonna be my slave for the rest of the month for all that shit you gave me over the years," Riku replied, pushing the goth off him and opening the door, only to see Roxas, Sora, and Demyx standing outside the door with their heads tilted to the side as if they were leaning against the door that was no longer there and trying to listen to what they were saying before it was opened. Riku lifted an eyebrow as the three moved away from the door with embarrassed looks and ran down stairs before Axel could see them.

"Were they listening to us?" the black/redhead asked as he came up behind the pale boy.

"Nope, just Roxas putting something away in his room," Riku lied as he made his way downstairs, knowing Axel could see right through it. He could see the questioning glances they were receiving and was ready to answer their questions.

"Suuuuure." Axel rolled his eyes, but gave a small smile to the back of Riku's head.

LINE-BREAK

"So you and Riku ok now?" Roxas asked in a whisper, hoping he hadn't woken Axel up. When the goth and silver haired teen came down from Sora's room earlier today, everyone refrained themselves from asking any questions; if Axel and Riku wanted to tell them, they would. But Roxas, however, wanted answers now and wasn't very patient. He would have asked earlier if the others weren't around, but they left his house late that night. The older teen accepted the blond's invitation to stay the night and the two were now in bed, Axel on the floor on a blow up mattress.

Roxas heard the other's bed squeak as the redhead (Roxas had asked earlier today, finally, of what color his hair was) turned onto his side so that he was facing the smaller boy, green eyes glowing in the dark almost. Axel gave a tired sigh and yawned, but he had a small grin in place, though it was kinda hard to see in the dark.

"Yeah, we got everything straightened out… but I think I'm going to keep my distance from Xion," Axel answered a little above a whisper, curling up underneath the three layers of blankets he had grabbed from the closet. Roxas found it funny how the older teen always slept with his arms underneath the blanket and was always on his side, curled up so that he was only taking up a small part of the bed.

"Why? What happened between you three in the past anyways? You were so happy to see Xion today that you forgot about me and now you want to stay away from her." The blond was confused about the whole situation even more and it was eating up at him like no other. He heard Axel sigh and soon enough, the goth was climbing into his bed. Roxas scooted towards the wall to give the other more room, not minding the closeness between them since he was more interested in what the goth had to say.

Axel made himself comfortable before he began speaking. "A couple of years ago, weeks before Ventus arrived, Xion, Riku, and I were really good friends. Not as good as me, Demyx, and Zexion were, but still good friends. But… one day, I barged into Riku's room like I always did and found Xion and Riku together… in bed… naked. Before I could say anything, Xion starts blabbering how Riku persuaded her into sleeping with him and all this other stuff to make it seem like she was the victim. I got mad and I hurt Riku. After that, I declared me and him were no longer friends and Xion left a week after, not telling anyone she was or where she was going." The goth yawned when he finished and closed his eyes, hoping to go to sleep since it was already one-o-clock.

"Oh…" Roxas mumbled, staring at the crease between the redhead's eyebrows, a sign that he still was pretty pissed about finding out the truth. "Well, she must have felt really bad and the guilt must be eating away at her."

"Good," Axel almost hissed, his anger now fully shown on his face as he curled a little tighter underneath the blanket, eyes now open but not looking at anything in particular. "I can't believe she did that. She knows me better than that; she could have told me the truth."

"How? How could she know that you weren't going to freak out on her because she and Riku had sex? Would you have taken it calmly if she told you the truth in the first place?" Roxas eyed the taller boy, who froze, eyes widening as he thought about it. "See? You wouldn't have, would ya? How would you react if you and whoever you slept with were caught in the act by one of your best friends?"

Axel looked down at the bed in shame. He might not have done what Xion did, but he probably would have come up with some kind of excuse that could possible hurt the person he slept with or the person who caught them. He wouldn't mind if it was Zexion who caught them in the act since he knew the slate haired male wasn't easily disgusted or surprised. If it was Demyx, however, the blond would have hit the rough and fly off the handles since he couldn't handle those kinds of things calmly. He wasn't too sure about Riku though. And now knowing that he too would have flip the lid (even though he kind of did and punched Riku) if he heard the truth and not in a good way, it made him feel a little guilty on how he treated Xion.

"You get what I'm saying?" the blond asked gently when he saw the guilty look on Axel's face.

The redhead nodded. "Yeah… damn you for being so wise," he grumbled, hiding his face beneath the blankets, which had Roxas smiling and blushing in embarrassment. After a few moments, the goth's eyes peeked out from underneath the blankets and glanced to the side as if embarrassed. "Thanks for being my friend and being so understanding. It's different having someone lecture me in a gentle way and in a way I understand. Zexion uses too many large words and Demyx… there's not much to say about him, though he does have his moments."

Roxas chuckled before he yawned, and quite loudly too. "Good to know that." He closed his eyes sleepily and turned over onto his back, already about to fall asleep.

"Hey Roxas?"

"Mhm?"

"Would you mind if I said that I feel closer and more comfortable with you than any of my other friends even though I've only known you for about a week?" Axel eyed Roxas, whose eyes snapped opened at this and turned to look curiously at the redhead.

"… a-are you being serious?"

The goth nodded. "Hells yeah. Maybe because of the way you are and the way you handle things better than anyone else. You do freak out sometimes, but quickly calm down when you realize it's either a joke or something that needed rephrasing." Axel's whole face could be seen once more and he was glad it was dark so the blond couldn't see the dark blush on his cheeks.

Roxas stared at the goth for a minute or two before he let out a sigh and smiled. "Thanks for giving me the honor of being your counselor." He snickered at the face Axel gave him.

"Well sorry for pouring my heart out!" Axel huffed, but the smile on his face betrayed him, showing that he wasn't angry at all. He gave another yawn, followed by Roxas and the two finally decided that it was time to go to sleep unless they wanted to be groggy and prissy tomorrow.

"Goodnight," Roxas murmured.

"Night."

* * *

**Lou-pie: so sorry about the long wait and all! Fanfiction was being a bitch and I wanted to finish Blood Lust before I started another chapter for I'm Yours… and I was being lazy and watching youtube videos and reading manga online. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I hope I'm going too fast or too slow for you guys. Review and tell me what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Lou-pie: hello my readers! I can see that you are enjoying yourselves with my story. But I be very sad 'cause I had to clip my fingernails today; since I want them to grow stronger, I have to clip them more often instead of letting them break off because of how long they get. Trust me when I saw I let my nails grow long, people always ask me if they're real… they are, so be aware. Anyways, I liked the way I made Axel and Roxas be, I like the way they act and I can tell some of you too, so I'm happy. Enjoy the story!**

**Axel: that's gross, letting your nails grow that long… must draw away all the guys.**

**Roxas: Axel, be nice unless you want your face clawed off… she has been known to be like a cat sometimes.**

**Lou: … wow, thanks you guys, I feel so loved…**

**Pairings: Axel/Roxas, Marluxia/Demyx, Zack/Cloud, more to be added later on**

**Rating: PG-NC17**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Growing Closer**

April, ah, the perfect time to enjoy the sun as much as you can before summer comes and goes away behind the clouds for the next three months… or as Axel told him. Roxas didn't believe the redhead at first when Axel said that they would be getting a lot of sun during the spring and breakup season more than in the summer. However, the blond was beginning to believe him after the sun shined for the fifth day of the week straight. But! This still doesn't mean the goth's right; he could be teasing the small boy. The breakup though, with all the snow finally melting away (Roxas couldn't have asked it to come sooner), almost had Axel freaking out.

The cause of this freak out was not because of the snow melting, but by how soon it had come. The breakup began during mid-March and would sometimes snow a little, but would never stick. The last of March was really wet, causing small lakes in some of the parking lots at schools and certain stores, even in the back roads. Apparently, it had come sooner than the people of Alaska had expected. Axel had told Roxas that the snow didn't start melting until late March or mid-April; even then it didn't melt as fast as it was now. The snow was almost completely gone and it was rather dusty and dry now, not that it wasn't dry before.

Demyx and a lot of the kids in the younger blond's school were rather happy to see the snow go and were ready for the summer to come quickly. Roxas was rather glad as well… that was until he saw how grumpy Axel was getting. The redhead wouldn't tell him anything though, he would rather have the blond find out on his own and this brought a small smile back to his face at the thought. This always made Roxas irritated at the goth and anxious of what was to come.

During these last two and a half months, Axel and Roxas had gotten rather close to the point where people started calling them an 'old married couple' rather than best friends. Why you ask; because of these three reasons: firstly, Roxas always made an extra lunch for Axel before he went to school. Secondly, the two were always seen hanging around each other, be it at school or at home, and they were always sitting close to each other, or hugging a lot (on Axel's part). Thirdly, they would spend hours in each other's room talking, but no knew that that's what they were doing and it worried them, except for Demyx, Zexion, and Riku of course.

Speaking of Riku, the friendship between him and Axel had grown again and the two were back on good terms. That didn't mean Riku didn't spend most of his time with Sora, because he still did and the two of them were like best friends now. The silver haired boy still spent a lot of time with Axel though at school, surrounded by his friends (Axel, Kairi, Sora, Terra, Ventus, Vanitas, and Roxas). However, the young blond knew that Riku thought of his younger brother more than a friend; the older boy was starting to have feelings for the brunette and it frightened Roxas just a little, but that didn't mean he was going to barge in on their friendship and stop him; it wasn't any of his business.

Let's see, Demyx and Marluxia were still together; Zexion was still single and was not looking for a relationship at the moment, though someone had caught his interest (no one knows who though); Terra's and Ven's relationship was still going strong; Leon was now living in his own apartment with a roommate that just so happened to be Nanaki; Roxas' family finally met Cloud and Zack and their son Denzel, which went rather well considering the blond's family was pretty open minded; and tonight was the night that Roxas gets to see one of Virgean's Dance shows that Axel has been so excited for. It was supposed to be held last month, but there were some complications.

At the moment, Roxas was alone at the beach, sitting down on a washed up log while watching the waves roled back and forth, a few ice pieces still littering the sand in random places. The greyish-yellowish sand was warm underneath his bare feet though, and much finer than he thought it would be. A couple with a dog passed by, their daughter, who was gathering shells, was ahead of them a few feet. The young boy sat on the white log with a bored expression, already missing Axel who was still at school finishing a project with his science buddy.

He had come to the beach just a few minutes ago with Terra, Ven, Sora, and Riku, but Terra and Ventus had walked further down the beach, hand in hand, while Riku and Sora were busy trying to race each other to some point down the beach away from the couple. Roxas had kept an eye out for his brother to make sure Riku wouldn't do anything until the silver haired boy gave a promising look that he would keep his hands to himself.

Sighing, the young blond pulled out his iTouch (Axel's old one, since he got a newer one with more Gigabytes), glad that Axel had uploaded 'web on the go' (I think that's what it's called) before he handed it to him and signed in on Facebook. Nothing interesting was happening at the moment; just your regular this person is now single, this person is now in a relationship, this person wants to be your friend on Facebook, a new photo album was uploaded by Axel. Wait.

"Axel made a new album?" Roxas touched the screen to see what photos the goth had put on the internet for everyone's eyes to see, hoping none of them were an embarrassing picture of him. "He put this on yesterday and just now I'm learning about it?" The first picture that showed up immediately had him laughing. It was of Axel right after he had gotten out of a shower with a towel wrapped around his chest like a woman, his hair done up in a towel as well. His mouth was wide open in a large O while his eyes looked up with his hands clasped on either side of his face. The blond had taken this picture not too long ago.

The next few were of him… asleep… with the kittens curled up around him as he slept on the goth's bed. This was obviously taken about a month ago when Axel still had all his kittens. It was sad when the redhead had to give his kittens away, but luckily they all went to someone he knew. Demyx had gotten one, Riku got one after convincing his mother and making a deal that he would pay for everything, Zexion nabbed one for him and his roommate Lexaeus, some girl named Paine (one of Axel's friends) snatched one, and the last one (the one Roxas liked the most) Axel kept for the young boy's sake. Roxas had been very pleased about that and helped pay for the cat food, litter, and toys.

Namine, who had become friends with Axel rather quickly through phone and Facebook, had commented on several of the kitten photos.

_OMG, how cute!_

_So lucky to be surrounded by cuteness!_

_Love the black and white one._

The others were of him, his brothers (yeah, Leon was in some of them in the background), Demyx, Zexion, Terra, Vanitas, and Riku goofing off or just of random pictures at random moments. Roxas' favorite though was of him sitting on Axel's shoulders as the goth walked along the beach. The person who had taken the photo did it in black and white behind them and the lighting was just right that it made the perfect picture. Even Namine and a couple of Axel's friends thought it was an amazing photo, praising Zexion's skills on how to use a camera.

"Well if it ain't lil' blondy," came a familiar voice from behind him.

Roxas looked up to see Lea walking towards him, wearing only a pair of shorts, tank top, and a thin sweater, his sandles in his hand. Saix was following behind him silently, though he had a small, smug smirk planted on his face while his eyes were trained on the older brother's ass. Roxas still had no idea what was going on between Axel's brother, Saix, and Isa; even Axel couldn't really tell what was going on since Lea was not home most of the time and when he was, he didn't speak about why Saix groped his ass, why Isa gave him harsh kisses in front of her brother, and why the two blue haired siblings were practically pulling Lea's arms out of their sockets when trying to gain his attention.

"Well if it isn't my pain in the ass?" the young blond quipped back with a small smirk. He couldn't see Isa anywhere, which meant Lea was trying to get away from the siblings but failed and ended up with Saix most likely for the whole day.

"Oooh, touchy. You're getting better at it every time I see you," Lea uttered with a small smirk.

"Axel's a very good teacher of the sorts. Why are you here, anyway?" Roxas couldn't help but ask. He held back a snicker when the redhead let out an irritated sigh while Saix's smug smirk grew. "Escape gone wrong?"

"You could say that." Lea glared at the bluenette over his shoulder, but he received a suggestive wink in return. "How was I supposed to know that locking your bedroom door would only make the guy hornier. I had to escape through my window before he picked the lock; didn't seem to help though."

"So you ran all the way down here before you got caught?"

"Sorta. I took a shortcut through someone's yard and ran through the bushy field, you know the one that surrounds the beach, before I was tackled right when I reached the sand." Lea growled and almost twirled around to bite the other man's hand when it groped his ass. "Luckily for me, there were too many people around so he had to let me go, but he won't leave me alone." His voice had a small whine to it, letting Roxas know that he was not enjoying this at all.

"What's the deal with you, him, and Isa anyway? Is it like a love triangle or something?" The young boy did snicker when the redhead gave him an irritated frown.

"No! I don't even know myself! All I know is that one day, me and Saix were best friends then the next thing I know, he wants to get into my pants before Isa does ever since I told him about Isa and I." If he could have stomped his foot without looking childish, he would have. He almost did when a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind, locking the redhead to a strong and defined chest.

"Just give in," Saix whispered into Lea's ear before biting it. "You know I can give you more pleasure than Isa ever could." One of his hands traveled down to palm the other's need while the other slid up to grasp the redhead's chin and tilt it to the side so he could nip at the exposed throat.

Roxas' eyes widened at what the blue haired man was doing to Lea right in front of him, his eyes betraying him when he tried to look away. And when Lea gave a surprised gasp, followed by a moan from Saix's ministrations, Roxas gulped from the heat that was welling up inside him. It didn't last long, though; the redhead had enough function in his brain to elbow the bluenette in the gut and escape from the man's hold. Lea was off again, running up towards the woods behind someone's house and leaving behind a pained Saix, who was trying to follow after him but was in too much pain.

"He's most likely going over to Demyx's house to hide," Roxas uttered as he tried to slow down his heart, swearing the other could hear it. Saix looked up in surprise from the help he was given, but did not waste anymore time in getting what he wanted from the redhead. _Well, somebody's gotta win that stupid redhead's heart and I'm cheering Saix on since he's much nicer than that sister of his._ He shuddered.

Terra and Ven, who had just gotten back from their long walk down the beach, had seen the whole thing as they were making their way back to Roxas and were surprised to see that the blond had enough process left in his brain to speak to the blue haired man, much less think. It was easy to tell when the older twin was in thought; he got this cute little frown on his face while his index fingers tapped on anything they were against without his knowledge.

"Are you ok?" Ventus asked quietly, scaring Roxas from his thoughts.

The older twin jumped in surprise and turned his head to look up into his almost exact clone who had a worried look on his face. "Huh?"

"I said 'are you ok?' It must have been quite a shock to see something like that done right in front of you."

Roxas shrugged. "I've seen you and Terra kiss and grope all the time."

"We don't grope!" Ven cried out, a cute pout etching onto his face.

Roxas lifted an eyebrow, but chose not to say anything to fluster his brother any more than he was. "But I guess it's alright since they were just light kisses and I've gotten used to it. But seeing two other people do it and kiss the other's neck and ear rather than the lips and actually out right grope each other is different I suppose, though it was all one-sided."

"I hope Saix wins, Isa's too scary," Terra spoke suddenly, just voicing his thoughts while they were on the subject of Lea and Saix. The twins nodded in agreement. "But it's confusing about what's going on between the three of them."

"Weeeelll, here's what I gathered so far from Lea today," Roxas began as he thought back on his and the redhead's conversation. "Apparently, after telling Saix that he and Isa were going out, Saix has been trying to get into his pants before Isa does and it appears to be confusing him. Axel did tell me that Saix did have the biggest crush on Lea, but was too afraid to tell him. But now that he knows that Isa wants Lea as well, Saix feels threatened and is trying to claim Lea his before Isa. Well… that's my theory."

"It appears that that would be our best guess at the moment," Terra agreed, sitting down, Ventus as well. He looked down at his watch and saw that it was sometime after four. "When was the show supposed to start tonight?"

"Seven," was Ventus' quick answer. "The doors will be open at six-thirty, but I feel we should go earlier and wait in line so we can get good seats. The place is always packed when we go."

"Where is it gonna be anyway?" Roxas asked.

"At the auditorium at our school, haven't we told you before?" Ven raised an eyebrow and gave a small giggle when Roxas looked up in thought before saying 'oh yeah.' "You're not very good at remembering still?"

"I have my moments," the older twin confessed lowly. He jumped again when his iTouch (that was still in his hand) lighted up and warned him that he had received a text message. He unlocked it and touched the screen to see who wanted to speak to him; sighing in relief when he saw that it was Axel.

_Firemage8 said: finally done with the stupid project! Had to listen to all of Tidus' whining and bitching that I wasn't doing it right before I finally put the smack down on him and told him to shut up and grow some balls!_

Roxas mentally laughed. _I can defiantly see him doing something like that._ He turned the device in his hand sideways and began typing down his own reply with his thumbs while Terra and his twin glanced over his shoulder to see who it was.

_Keyblade13 says: are you back yet?_

_Firemage8 said: yup, just got home. I tried calling your house then your cell before I tried texting you on my iTouch. I got lucky it seems._

The young blond began checking his pockets for his cell, only to find it off. He turned it on and immediately his phone vibrated to let him know he had one missed call.

_Keyblade13 says: uh, yeah, I kinda forgot to turn it on. R u still taking me to see this show that u've been so excited about?_

_Firemage8 said: duh, I was thinking about leaving a little after six since it's about a 15 min drive to the school. Want to get good seats!_

_Keyblade13 says: of course. I'm at the beach. Do u want to come and hang out with us, or do u want to meet me at my or your house?_

_Firemage8 said: I be coming to u, stay right where u are! … whose we?"_

_Keyblade13 says: Terra, Ven, Riku, and Sora._

_Firemage8 said: cool, I'll ride my dirt bike down._

_Firemage8 is no longer available._

Roxas turned off his iTouch and put it back in his coat pocket. All the while, Terra and Ven were watching the now happy blond with knowing eyes and smug grins. "What?" he asked a little darkly after a few minutes of their staring.

"You and Axel are so cute," Ventus giggled, oblivious or ignoring his twin's glare. "Seriously! Ever since you arrived, Axel has been overly happy; almost like he's skipping in a field of flowers." He giggled again, earning a chuckle from his boyfriend.

Roxas just rolled his eyes, but soon perked up when he heard the detail sign of the redhead's bike zooming down the road. He looked up towards the top of the small hill where cars were parked and smiled when he saw the brilliant red dirt bike coming down the hill. Axel skidded to a halt at the bottom of the hill before he reached the sand, using his toe to pull down the kickstand after taking the keys out. The helmet was soon pulled off and set aside so he could pull off his boots that were made for this type of machine. The blond was beside him seconds with a large smile on his face at the sight of Axel's hair being pulled back in a loose pony-tail.

"That didn't take long to get here," the small teen stated as the older boy stood, wiggling his toes in the sand.

"I was already getting ready to come here when I texted you, call it a hunch if you will," Axel replied with a smirk. He greeted the couple who were making their way over towards the two friends just as Sora and Riku ran passed them. The two running fools stopped when they noticed the redhead and ran up to greet him.

LINE-BREAK

After a small walk down the beach with Axel, Roxas and the redhead went back to the blond's house on the dirt bike. Roxas wore the helmet, but Axel kept the goggles for himself and went slowly for his and the other's safety. The four other boys followed in Terra's car, beating the two to the twin's house even though they weren't racing...

At the moment, Roxas was just getting out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist as he walked up to his room when he noticed no one was in the living room or kitchen… he had forgotten to bring his clothes with him again. Blushing all the way up the stairs and missing his older brother's watching eyes, the young boy made it to his room, only to almost have a heart attack when he opened his door to see Axel sitting right there in front of him on his bed. He remembered leaving the redhead down stairs in the kitchen where he was feasting on a bowel of ice cream.

Closing the door without a word, Roxas made his way to his closet and began searching through his stuff, wondering what he was going to wear today. He would have worn what he was wearing earlier, but it was dirty from the bike ride through the muddy trails. Without thinking, he dropped the towel and began getting dressed right in front of the goth after picking out a t-shirt and a pair of pants. Roxas had his back to him and had expected for the redhead turn his head around when he dropped the only thing covering his privates.

Little did he know that Axel's wide eyes were actually staring right at his naked body, a blush forming on his cheeks as a hint of arousal welled up inside him. There wasn't a single scar or blemish that he could see on the naked back, ass, and legs, just a few bruises here and there from their roughhousing. His long, thin legs were hairless and looked smooth to touch as did the rest of his body from what Axel could see. And when Roxas bent down to pull up his boxers, the goth's nose almost busted out blood. Axel tried to control his breathing as his arousal grew and he tried to will it away, but Roxas' obliviousness to him was turning him on fast and it scared him.

He finally turned away when the blond finished, making it look as if he had his back towards the young teen the whole time. Roxas immediately blushed bright pink when he realized what he had done and felt guilty for not giving the redhead a warning. He told Axel that it was alright to turn around and lifted an eyebrow at the goth's flushed face and heavy breathing.

"Sorry about that… are you alright?" Roxas asked gently.

Axel stood while trying to hide the bulge in his pants, giving the other a small, awkward smile. "I'm alright; I think I just need some air." He quickly left the room and made his way downstairs to go outside, passing by Leon who saw the look on the other's face and followed him out, sandwich in hand.

"… so stupid, I should have looked away!" was the last part that Leon caught as he rounded the corner of the house, spotting Axel a few feet away with his head leaning against the side of the house with a look of confusion and despair on his face. "What the hell is wrong with you Axel?"

When the redhead grabbed the front of his pants, Leon seemed to understand a little of what was going on. The brunette had greeted the redhead earlier today before the goth made his way upstairs to Roxas' room. Soon after that, he had seen Roxas walk up to his room in nothing but a towel, most likely forgetting about his clothes again. When the blond hadn't come back out with a pile of clothes in hand, Leon didn't know what to think of what the two might have been doing in there. A few minutes later and Axel comes out with a look of distress, oblivious to Leon when he passed by him.

Axel felt the brunette's presence and looked up quickly, sighing in relief when he saw that it was only Leon before tensing when he realized that he still had something to get rid of and removed his hand away from his aching crotch without a second thought. Leon smirked at the sight of the man who was usually so calm act like this and couldn't help but ask:

"Not getting enough in the sack, kid?"

The younger male glared at that but said nothing for a second or two. "How could I be getting enough when I've never… been with someone before?" The flush on his face grew to his ears and he turned his back away from the brunette, missing the surprised look on the older man's face.

"Really? You've never slept with anyone?" A nod. "Ever?" Another nod. "So what's the deal with you?"

"I'm confused," was the quick reply.

"About?"

"I'm not sure." Axel sighed and sat down on the ground, Leon sitting next to him. "I… I never felt like this for anyone before." The older man began to understand what was going on, but let the other continue. "I mean, sometimes I have some feelings for him suddenly well up inside me before they leave again within seconds, making it seem like they were illusions. But… when he suddenly came in, in nothing but a towel and began getting dressed right in front of me… I should have looked away!"

The brunette lifted an eyebrow and could see the stress that the situation was creating. "So you saw my brother naked? Huh… I don't know if I should feel over protective or a little happy that you finally realized your feelings for Roxas."

"Huh?" Axel gave the other an odd look.

"Come one Axel, almost everyone who knows you two thinks you two are together. And a lot of people hope you two are, even our parents. But, you're confused, I see, of what this stirring in your belly is. I can tell that you are also afraid of what this might do to your friendship with my brother." He smiled gently when Axel looked down in embarrassment. "I may not be as wise as my brother, but your expressions are easy to read. You're a good kid, Axel, and I'm putting my bet on you that you will win my brother's heart; don't fail me or I'm gonna have ta punch twenty dollars out of you."

Axel's expression was priceless. He couldn't believe that Leon, Roxas' older, protective brother, told him he was routing for him. There had to be a catch.

"Oh yeah," the brunette said suddenly just as he was about to leave, "if you break his heart… I break your legs and I'll make sure you won't be able to even enjoy the pleasure of masturbating ever again." He gave a pleasant, creepy grin and left the redhead to his thoughts just as his naïve little brother came rushing out of the house in search for said redhead.

When Roxas spotted him, he sighed in relief and made his way over towards the dazed out goth. "Are you ok? You just suddenly rushed out like I was contagious with something terrible." The blond gave the other a worried look.

Axel jerked out of his thoughts and looked up towards the small teen in surprise before giving a small, nervous smile. "Huh?"

Raising an eyebrow, Roxas repeated, "'Are you ok? You just suddenly rushed out like I was contagious with something terrible,' I said."

_Contagious of being so damn cute I'm getting a hard on is what you have,_ Axel thought before saying, "Nah, you just surprised me so I was feeling a little awkward and need some air." Not a complete lie. He almost cried out in agony when Roxas tilted his head to the side cutely while giving an apologetic smile. He was just _too damn__** cute!**_

"Sorry about that, I was surprised to suddenly see you in my room and I kinda dozed off so I wasn't thinking clearly about… you know…" Roxas looked down at his feet and blushed, nervousness welling up in stomach.

Axel waved it off, acting like it was nothing when there was truly something going on in the goth's heart and tumbling around in his brain. "Forget about it, no one was hurt, just a little embarrassed."

Roxas sighed in relief. "Good. I was a little worried there I might have scared you off, especially when I saw you and Leon talking. What were you two talking about anyways?" He sat down next to the suddenly anxious Axel, anxious to change the topic but there was no way getting around this one now that the blond's interest was piqued.

Eyes widening just a smidge, Axel started to think up some ways to lie and make it sound believable. "Ah, nothing much. He just wanted to see if I was alright 'cause I accidentally tripped over my own two feet coming out here." He gave a fake laugh that was highly believable and was glad that Roxas bought it.

"Oh, is that why you're on the ground?"

"Yeah…" Axel could feel guilt riding up and down his spine and into his heart, lying to his best friend (hopefully soon become lover) like this. Roxas just wasn't ready to hear the truth yet; he's too naïve and innocent, though he did say some nasty things when he felt like it to make the other's laugh when the parents weren't around.

"It's five-thirty; don't you need to get ready?"

The goth cursed beneath his breath and jumped up, racing towards his dirt bike and riding off once he had all his gear on. Roxas guessed he was supposed to follow and hopefully the redhead would be done by the time he got there. Sighing, the blond began walking down the dirt road towards Axel's house.

LINE-BREAK

Roxas settled into the seat of the auditorium awkwardly. All the seats were just like theater seats so the bottom folded up, which was the awkward part for our (ahem, Axel's) blond. Every time he sat up straight, the bottom would flip up a little, his feet no longer touching the floor and making the seating very uncomfortable. Roxas hated slouching, always getting on the redhead's back about it because it wasn't healthy for his spine, especially in the situation it was in now, though it is getting better.

Axel just snickered at the adorable sight which he received a kick for that. He bit his lip to keep back the howl of pain he most likely would have let out from how hard the other kicked. Roxas smirked when justice was done and let himself slump just a little so his feet could touch the floor. The older teen gave a smoldering glare that quickly vanished at the sight of the blond nice and relaxed in his chair.

Seats were being filled quickly by family and friends of the dancers or of people who just wanted to see the amazing show. The two were happy that they made it just in time to find good seats in the middle, saving the whole row for their friends and family, including Zack, who just so happened to sit right next to Axel. The raven sat down on the last seat next to the isle, smiling broadly like the proud father and husband he was. He gets to watch both his blond and son dance today since they never practiced at home, wanting to keep it a surprise for him.

"Someone looks mighty proud of himself today," Axel stated with a smirk, feeling excited himself about the show. His smirk turned into a small grin when Zack turned to answer him with a pleased smile.

"Of course! My husband is the one who choreographs the dances and Denzel's in them. Denzel told me that he was going to do a solo tonight that Cloud doesn't even know about and told me to keep it a secret from him." The older man was practically bouncing in his seat from his excitement, impatient to see the show start.

"Really? I can't wait!" Axel cooed, feeling rather proud himself for the little boy's bravery.

Ten minutes later, the lights dimmed, the curtains opened, and the show began. It was spectacular! Roxas didn't even know that people's bodies could move like that! Even the little kids were excellent, but the older teens were much better and advanced. However, no one could dance as well as Denzel, the most amazing dancing twelve years old Roxas had ever seen. Now he knew why Zack was so proud. The costumes were well done and flashy, the make- up was amazing, and the choreography was nothing like Roxas had ever seen before.

Cloud only showed up once when he and a few of the dancers were cleaning up after one of the numbers that had to deal with one of the kids throwing a bucket of fake money to another that looked like it was filled up with oil rather than money. The older blond was dressed up in working overalls, the front undone, and was sweeping up the money with a large broom with a couple of the kids grabbing handfuls of it and stuffing the money into their own working overalls that was part of the last dance. When Cloud had his back towards the crowd, he shook his butt up and down with the music that was playing while cleaning up the mess.

Of course, Zack liked this very much and hid an embarrassed grin behind his hand. The crowd laughed at the blond's silliness before he and the two kids disappeared off the side of the stage. The show began again, this one being a little slower than the other's; a tap dancing number that Denzel was in.

?

An hour passed before a ten intermission was given; half of the show was over and Roxas was a little depressed about that, but at least there was another hour of it left. A quick bathroom break and the young blond was back in his seat just in time before the lights started to dim, scooting past Zack and Axel to get to his seat. In doing so, this caused the redhead to become distracted at the sight of Roxas' denim clad ass in his face that was not done on purpose. The goth mentally slapped himself and let himself be drawn back to the show, forgetting instantly of what had just happened, especially went it appeared that Denzel's solo was next.

When song began, the group was in for a big surprise when a voice began singing that sounded exactly like Zack's.

_No more talk of darkness,_

_Forget these wide-eyed fears_

_I'm here, nothing can harm you-_

_My words will warm and calm you_

_Let me be your freedom,_

_Let daylight dry your tears_

_I'm here, with you, beside you_

_To guard you and to guide you_

They certainly were in for another big surprise when the Cloud's singing voice began the next verse.

_Say you love me every waking moment,_

_Turn my head with talk of summertime_

_Say you need me with you,_

_Now and always_

_Promise me that all you say is true-_

_That's all I ask of you_

Denzel's solo to the song was beautiful, so talented that Zack's eyes began brimming with tears. The song that was playing was of him and Cloud when they first met and had to sing a duet for some competition that the raven couldn't even remember anymore. However, he can no longer sing thanks to the horrible sore throat he had years ago that completely ruined his singing voice.

**Zack**

_Let me be your shelter,_

_Let me be your light,_

_You're safe: no one will find you_

_Your fears are far behind you_

**Cloud**

_All I want is freedom,_

_A world with no more night_

_And you, always beside me,_

_To hold me and to hide me_

**Zack**

_Then say you'll share with me _

_One love, one lifetime_

_Let me lead you from your solitude _

_Say you need me with you here beside you_

_Anywhere you go let me go too,_

_That's all I ask of you_

Zack practically was crying now from old memories making themselves known to this song. How Denzel got his hands on this song, Zack wanted to know, but that could wait until later. Roxas was a little teary eyed himself, not having seen something so beautifully done and with feeling in a long time. A few other people who knew the gay married couple were crying silently themselves while the others were a little disgusted that two men were singing their love to each other.

**Cloud**

_Say you'll share me_

_One life, one lifetime_

_Say the word and I will follow you_

**Both**

_Share each day with me_

_Each night, each morning_

**Cloud**

_Say you love me_

**Zack**

_You know I do_

**Both**

_Love me, that's all I ask of you_

_Anywhere you go let me go too_

_Love me, that's all I ask of you_

The song was finished with Denzel on the ground with one leg in front of him while the other behind him, his head down touching his knee. Everyone clapped their hands and cheered for the wonderful number, especially Zack, who was now standing and clapping loudly, causing everybody else to stand and do the same. He yelled 'I love you Denzel!' while Axel whistled loudly. The lights on the stage went black and the young boy made his way to the side of the stage and disappeared to get ready for his next dance after the one that was about to start.

LINE-BREAK

The show was over and the small group (Zack, Axel, Roxas, Kairi, Riku, Sora, Terra, Ventus, Vanitas, Demyx, and Zexion (small group my ass)) made their way down the hall to where the dancers would be coming out. All the while, the raven was being asked so many questions about him singing.

"I used to singe in a choir at my school and I probably could have made it big if I hadn't gotten a bad cold and gotten a terrible sore throat that practically ruined my singing voice," Zack explained with a sad grin. "Cloud was a dancer and singer from a different school that he competed against with me. He had heard that I was a great singer, especially in opera, and asked me to do a duet with him and win the competition between many of the schools in the area that we lived in.

"Society was just getting used to gay couples at the time and we decided to choose a love song to push it even more. At first, we could hardly stand each other because our schools were rivals, but we stayed civil when we sang. Soon enough our hate turned into love and the song that we sang had more feeling in it than it did before. I'm just wondering where on earth did Denzel got his hands on it; several women wanted to record the song and asked us to redo it in their recording shops and gave us a copy of the CD, maybe he swiped from our room." Zack smiled at the old memories, of him and his husband standing forehead to forehead when they sang that song to the crowd. It was almost like their love confession to each other.

"Why did Cloud want to compete against his own school?" Ven asked from where he stood with Terra's arm around his shoulders.

Zack opened his mouth to answer, but Cloud's voice interrupted him from behind him. "'Cause my school was nothing but a hell hole that held a bunch of dicks that I thought needed no praise from the other schools. And I'm glad I did it too."

The older man spun around and wrapped his arms around his lover, kissing him gently to keep it PG for the kids around them. The blond's eyes were a little red and puffy, a detailed sign that he too had been crying from the solo. Denzel came down the hall with his large bag full of his costume clothing and dance make-up and was soon enough hugging both of his parents, earning both of their praises.

"Happy anniversary," the young blond whispered, earning shocked gazes from the two.

"It is our anniversary, isn't it?" Cloud asked, a little peeved that he had forgotten all about it. He was so busy with dance and getting ready for the show that it completely slipped his mind.

Zack too was busy in paying the house bills before the end of the month came and looking after the kids in his weight lifting class that had forgotten about it too. "It is… hey Denzel-"

"I already asked Kunzel if I could spend the night at his house and I already brought my things," the boy interrupted with a small smirk, handing his large bag to Zack before running off with a small back to find his friend after greeting the others.

The couple flushed in embarrassment that had the others laughing. Immediately, the older blond was bombarded with flowers and praises from the small group and others that were the married couple's friends.

While this was going on, Roxas was talking to his twin while waiting for the others to finish showing how proud they were of Cloud. Axel watched the small blond's moving lips, sparkling eyes, and the small hand motions he did sometimes while explaining something. Once in a while, Roxas would change his stance from one foot to the other, his hip jutting out a little. And when he laughed, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

Not too far away, Zack was watching the redhead stare at the other as if he was in a love trance, which wouldn't be too far from the truth. He smiled at the thought of the goth finally realizing his feelings for the young boy was more than friendship. When asked by Cloud what he was smirking at, he just waved it off and said that it was nothing before asking if he was ready to leave. The two eagerly left to go home, already feeling a little sexual tension between them.

* * *

**Lou-pie: this was finished faster than I thought it was considering that I'm repainting my room. Sorry for the song thing, I love that song and all I could think of was Cloud and Zack singing it, so I decided to add it and you can think of whatever dance Denzel did to it. I hope you're enjoying it so far and continue reading. Ideas are welcome especially when I have writer's block and am easily distracted. Review and tell me what you think! OH! And I need a beta for this story! Anyone interested?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Lou-pie: I have the perfect way in getting Axel and Roxas together, but that's gonna be in later chapters. There's gonna be some oblivious Roxas-ness and some frustrated Axel-ness before that. And the person who said I quoted something from Spirited Away; I had no idea since I've never seen it before but have heard the name before. Anyways, thanks for commenting; enjoy the chapter!**

**Rating: PG-NC17**

**Pairings: Axel/Roxas, Marluxia/Demyx, Zack/Cloud**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Anymore oblivious, that'd be great**

Axel was almost ripping his hair out by the time Roxas finally stood back up after sitting down on his hands and knees to look under the couch where his pencil had rolled. Axel was lying flat on his back on the floor a few feet from him while waiting for the blond to finish his homework. Who did their homework on Saturdays anyways? Not Axel it seems, though he kinda had been forced to do it by said blond if they wanted to hang out today. Luckily for him, the goth didn't have a lot to do and was finished before Roxas.

Anyways, back to why Axel is frustrated. Watching the blond bend over and stick his ass up in the air right in front of him was really taking a toll on the redhead's control. The way the shorts hugged Roxas' bum, those long legs finally being shown to the world now that it was becoming warmer, the way the blond's shirt rode up just a little as he lowered his upper body down more to get a better look under the couch was more than Axel could bear. He forced his green eyes away from the round globes so he wouldn't have to explain why he had a hard on. He finally looked back when Roxas sat back down and began on his math assignment again.

"Are you almost done?" Axel suddenly asked after a few quiet moments. He winced when his lower back began to tense up from laying straight for too long and rolled over onto his stomach. Even doing this kind of hurt his back, but it was better than lying on his side long enough on a hard floor that it began to bother his ribs.

Roxas didn't even bother to look up from his work, but a small frustrated sigh let the redhead know that he had heard. "I'll be done when I'm done, so please be quiet so I can concentrate." If he had looked up just then, he would have seen Axel smirk in mischief and crawl his way over towards the blond predatorily. He crawled behind the couch and slowly peeked over just in time to have his forehead smacked by an agitated Roxas.

"Bother me again and I won't hesitate to stab you in the eye with my pencil," Roxas almost growled out, happy to see Axel slunk back to his spot on the floor in defeat. The smaller boy rolled his eyes at the small pout on Axel's lips and went back to work, almost done anyway.

After about five minutes, Axel was bored again and made his way towards the blond's kitchen to find a snack in the junk food cabinet. Roxas' family always made sure their sweet cabinet was stocked thanks to Sora's and Devon's nasty habit of continuously eating the junk. Roxas himself didn't care for many sweets except for white chocolate, popsicles, and airheads. Leon loved all kinds of sweets, but he couldn't eat very much of it because he'll break out all over his face, poor bastard. And Laura, she was kind of like Roxas in what sorts of sweets she liked.

Getting back to where we left Axel, the redhead pulled out a Heath bar, lifting an eyebrow at what this candy bar was. He opened it, took a bite, and almost melted right on the spot. It was practically a toffee bar covered in chocolate with a little bit of peanut shavings inside. He had seen this sort of bar in the stores, but he always thought it was more like a healthy bar or something because of it's name; definitely not healthy with all the carbs inside of this delicious goodness. Axel went back to his spot on the couch and continued munching on his newly found favorite candy. His crunching reached Roxas' ears, forcing him to look up and see what was making that noise.

"What are you eating?"

The redhead looked over, the bar still in his mouth when he was about to take another bite. "Hm?" He looked down at what the blond was looking at before pulling the candy away from his mouth and spoke around the piece he had bitten off. "A Heath Bar; it's very tasty."

"Is there anymore left?"

"I think I took the last one."

"… Remind me to buy some more later." Roxas went back to work, trying to ignore the annoying crunching noises. By the time he was finished, Axel had fallen asleep on the floor where the sun shined through the window. Roxas smiled and decided to let him sleep a little more since the older boy hadn't been getting a lot of sleep lately even with the pills.

Sleeping on the floor, curled beneath the sun's rays reminded Roxas of a cat. However, Axel was not like a cat at all, more like a puppy. The goth always wanted attention, practically wagging his tail whenever he saw his master (Roxas), and promised to protect the young boy just like a guard dog. Whenever they went on walks, Axel always made sure he was walking on the side that would keep Roxas from getting run over, keeping himself between the cars and the younger boy. It was adorable, really, and never missed to amuse the blond.

He stood just as the front door opened to reveal Cid and Devon. Roxas quickly shushed the others before they could wake up Axel. The two men winced and tiptoed up towards the gaming room, doing whatever all men do: talk. Talk about the most shitless things that were meaningless to teenagers. What do they talk about? Roxas didn't know since he usually tuned them out, but luckily they went up into the man's den (what Laura calls it since she's only been up there once) to talk whatever they talk about. It would have been interesting if the blond was to suddenly walk up there and see the two old men playing video games.

_Now there's a thought,_ Roxas snickered in his mind, looking at the oven's clock to see that it was past four. He glanced back to where Axel was still sleeping, but slowly on the verge of waking up by the way he was breathing and the way his closed eyelids moved. It didn't take very long for the goth to wake up fully, green eyes slowly opening. Axel sat up with a grown, rubbing his eyes with one hand as he held himself up with the other, yawning soon afterwards.

"How long have I been asleep?" Axel asked quietly, yawning again, mouth opening wide before snapping closed.

"About 45 minutes," Roxas replied as he made his way over to the redhead. "And it's time for your massage since we didn't get to do it yesterday or the day before." He smiled a little when the other groaned at the mention of his daily massages. "We have to keep on top of this if you don't want those pains to come back. Have you been doing those stretches before going to bed?"

"Yes." Axel took off his shirt reluctantly and rolled onto his stomach, glad that the blond couldn't see him blush, especially when the younger boy sat on top of his thighs right below his rear and ran his hands along the goth's back, pushing down to massage the muscles deeply. It felt good until Roxas found a knot. They weren't as bad as before and Axel hardly got them anymore, except for the ones in his shoulders; they never seemed to go away.

"Good. Have you been icing your back twice a day?"

"You should know that since the first icing is usually whenever I'm at your house or you're at mine," Axel scoffed and relocated his arms from his sides to beneath his head, allowing Roxas to get the muscles beneath the redhead's shoulder blades.

"But have you been doing the second icing?" the blond waited for an answer and when he only received a small grunt of pain from where his fingers were digging, he smirked and smacked the older boy across the back of the head. "Stupid. You need to ice this back of yours twice; once in the afternoon and once before going to bed. Have you've been using the heating pad I gave you to relax your muscles?"

"Yeah. The heating seems to be working better than the ice," Axel grumbled. He sighed when the hard part was over and Roxas began relaxing the muscles by rubbing the heels of his hands in circular motions all along the goth's back. The hands turned into thumbs and began to run along either side of Axel's spine, the goth's favorite part. The thumbs stopped around the middle of his spine where the small curve that wasn't supposed to be there was. The thumbs moved away before the blond's index and middle finger began rubbing and feeling around the small curve.

"It seems the curve in your spine has gotten much smaller than when we first began your therapy," Roxas stated, mostly to himself. "It seems that these sessions have been helping you in a long run. So I'm going to reschedule the sessions for Mondays and Fridays instead of every day. We'll do them after school and before you go to work, 'kay?"

Axel almost spun around to give Roxas his thanks, but he contained himself and reminded himself that he'd only be getting those nice massages that the blond usually gave afterwards only twice a week now. He nodded, however. "Yeah." He put his shirt back on after Roxas got off and turned towards the young boy to ask him something, but only to come face to 'face' with Roxas' ass.

Roxas was picking up his schoolwork while Axel had been putting his shirt back on and accidentally dropped his pencil again, which so happened to roll beneath the couch _again_. And once _again_, the blond was back on his knees, looking for where his pencil had rolled with Axel staring at his rear that went unnoticed. The redhead was contemplating something in his head and finally agreed on whatever it was he was thinking of just as the blond grabbed his pencil and smacked him… on the ass… most likely leaving a red handprint where it had hit the blond's right ass cheek.

Roxas sat up quickly, covering his ass with both his hands, pencil forgotten, and looked over his shoulder to give Axel, who looked as innocent as could be, a confused glare. "What the hell was that for?"

"What, it was sticking right out there and was begging to be spanked," the taller teen replied with an evil grin. He gave the impression that he was only teasing when he was really jumpy and yelling in victory on the inside. Roxas seemed to believe that Axel was only teasing and tackled the redhead to the floor, planning on pinning him to ground for what he did.

Axel may be stronger and bigger, but Roxas was small and quick, easily getting out of the goth's hold. It also helped by wrestling Leon or Cid from time to time. But by the time the wrestling came to an end, Roxas found himself panting for air beneath Axel, his wrists pinned down above his head. The blond growled at the thought of losing and tried to struggle away from the older boy's hold, but only half-heartedly since his body had grown weak.

"Damn, I hate being weak," Roxas grumbled, stopping his struggle and turned his head to the side in embarrassment.

Axel shook his head with a gentle grin. "You're not weak, I'm just stronger. If anything, you're fast and flexible and that's much more useful than being strong, though being strong does have its perks." He emphasized his point by pinning Roxas' wrists together and holding them above the blond's head with one hand while the other began tickling the younger boy's sides. But it seemed to be in vain when all Roxas did was look up at the redhead in confusion at what the goth was trying to do. "You're not ticklish?"

"No… neither am I five years old." Roxas lifted an eyebrow and smirked at the distraught face Axel was giving him. "Now get off me." He sat up when the redhead did as told and rubbed his sore side where Axel had ran his finger nails over. "And you didn't have to be so rough."

"Sorry about that." Axel gave a sheepish smile from where he sat in front of the blond before scratching the corner of his eye with his index finger while the eye was closed.

Roxas found it quite random and stood up, going into the kitchen to find something to snack on before dinner. He pulled out a bag of white cheddar flavored popcorn and Axel was beside him in minutes, waiting for the blond to open the bag hungrily, licking his lips. The younger teen was surprised to turn around and see the goth right there, staring down at the bag in want that he accidentally pulled the bag open too hard that it ripped it straight down the middle, popcorn pieces flying everywhere.

"Oh, fuck, I'm sorry," Axel said with a grimace while he picked up the popcorn to put them in a bowl, not wanting to waste the delicious food when the floor had been clean recently. Roxas found it rather disgusting since he never ate anything that had fallen on the floor, and neither did Axel unless he knew for sure the food would be alright to eat. "Didn't know I was gonna surprise you like that."

The small teen rolled his eyes and began helping the other pick up the popcorn, eating a few from time to time to let Axel know he wasn't really worried about eating the snack after it had touched the ground. "Shut up, I should have a grabbed some scissors to open it quicker."

Once the mess was cleaned up and mostly eaten, Axel and Roxas both sat on the floor in front of the TV… kinda. Axel laid on his stomach with his face towards the TV while Roxas laid on his back on top of him with his head laying between the redhead's shoulder blades and his legs on either side of the goth's while playing on his PSP. That was how Laura and one of her new friends found them when they walked in from the garage with their hands full of groceries, a young boy following behind them with a jug of milk.

The two boys on the floor looked up; eyebrows lifting up at the new visitors that they have yet to see while the young woman besides Laura gazed down at the two with an odd look that Axel and Roxas couldn't read. The redhead waved happily to Roxas' mother, who happily did the same and greeted the two young boys seated that were seated on the floor in an odd position. The young boy, who appeared to be around Roxas' age, looked at the two on the floor as well, but he had a look of confusion of why they were sitting like that and felt comfortable.

The boy had blond hair that was brighter than Roxas' that spiked up in a peculiar way, blue eyes with some kind of tattoo on the left of his face, and light tan skin. He was short too, maybe an inch or so taller than Roxas, but he defiantly had a bigger build and it showed through his tight BillaBong T-shirt. The mother had midnight black hair, hazel green eyes, and pale skin with a small body frame, but was a bit taller than her son.

"Axel, Roxas," Laura began, "this is Kendra Dincht and her son Zell. Kendra, Zell, this is my son Roxas and his friend Axel… what was your last name again?"

"Sinclair. Axel Sinclair at your service, especially for you Mrs. T (Axel's nick-name for Laura)," the redhead replied with a wink, making the older woman shake her head and chuckle. "Oh yeah, before I forget, grandma wanted to know if you guys would like to go out to lunch with us tomorrow."

The brunette thought for a moment, wondering what she and her family were doing tomorrow, when nothing came up she smiled and nodded. "Sure, we would love to. Where will we be going?"

"My grandma was thinking about going to Sockeyes at the Kenai landing at the end of Cannery Road." Axel shrugged and had Roxas get off so he could stand up, showing his true height to the visitors. He stretched and made his way over to the kitchen to sit at the island where a few stools sat. "She was thinking about coming here around 12:30 so we could show you where this place is at."

"Ok," Laura stated happily as she began to put the groceries away. "I'll just need to talk to Devon and Cid about it… Is it just family members, or can a couple of friends come too?" She paused by the fridge to give Axel a questioning glance.

"I asked that too and g-ma said it was alright if I or you guys invited a couple of friends, but not too many." The redhead then glanced at the newcomers with a wide grin. "You two are welcome to join us if you want."

The black haired woman shook her head politely. "No, thank you; we still have some stuff to do." She gave a small smile and told Laura that she had to go. "Do you mind if Zell could stay here for a little while? He doesn't like running errands with me much."

"Sure!" the brunette exclaimed.

"Thank you." Kendra kissed her son's cheek goodbye, which had Zell groaning 'mom' in embarrassment, and left, saying that she would be back in a couple of hours.

The taller blond stood awkwardly in the kitchen before Axel motioned him to sit on the stool next to him. Zell obeyed and sat down, wondering what he was supposed to say and a little nervous about being in a stranger's home. He soon relaxed, however, at the friendly smile Laura and Axel were giving him.

"So what school do you go to since I don't see you at mine?" the goth said, trying to get a conversation going.

"SoHi," was the quiet answer.

"SoHi? Really? Do you like it there?"

"Hell no!" Zell relied a little loudly with an odd look on his face. "That place sucks! All we have there are a bunch of pot heads and sex addicts." He closed his and shivered in disgust as a memory popped up into his head. "And I swear the teachers are out to get me."

"I've been there once to watch a basketball game and man does that place give me the creeps. The name really does go with the people that attend it."

Roxas stood up from his spot so he could join in on the conversation. "Where is it at?"

"In Soldotna somewhere," Zell answered with a shrug. "At least this is my last year. After May, done with school forever! Or at least until I go to college." He chuckled before sighing, crossing his arms over the counter and laid his head on them.

"Have you decided on where you want to go yet?" Laura butted in, leaning against the counter. "I hear that there's a college here in town."

The older blond gave a small grimace as he raised his head. "Eh, not a very good one though and I rather go to one outside of state. I haven't figured out which one I want to go to yet, though." He gave a small whine and said, "It's hard trying to pick one that has enough places that are hiring close by, that is cheap, or has good roommates on hand. My parents once roomed some guy to help with the payment on the house and that _did not_ go well."

"What happened?" Roxas asked, becoming interested in the story as he leaned against the counter next to his mom, facing the other boys.

Zell seemed a little hesitant, but after considering that the mother and son weren't disturbed by the redhead's appearance, he decided to continue on with the story. "Well, the guy who decided to live with us is about 3 years older than me, so that would make him 20 now, but he was 18 when this first happened and had just moved up here. Everything started off fine, he would pay his share of the rent and would pay for his own food and obeyed my parents' rules, but… he was kinda "spellbound" by me, or as he said." He shook his head lightly and let out another sigh. "Let's just say that my parents aren't really open about homosexuals and caught us in a very… intimate position one night." Zell blushed and glanced away while Laura giggled goodheartedly, surprising the taller blond.

"What happened then?" she then asked, wanting the boy to continue and finish his tale.

"Well, he got kicked out and I was grounded for months until my parents forgot that I was grounded." Zell rolled his eyes at remembering how unreasonable his parents were acting when all that happened. "The guy was a jerk, but he was hhhot. Damn was he hot! Muscular body, short blond hair, blue/green eyes, and a nice tan. Too bad we didn't get very far." The older blond seemed to go off into his own little world at the thought of the older man, a small smile seen on his face.

Mrs. Taylor was giggling with a hand over her mouth, finding the boy's acts adorable. It was Axel's snort that brought the new guy back down to earth, making him blush in embarrassment at what he had just did, but was glad that the three didn't seem disgusted with him. Roxas, though, had an odd look on his face at the way Zell had described the man, finding it rather familiar.

"Would this guy happen to be named Seifer Almasy?" Roxas questioned with a small furrow between his eyebrows.

The other blond's eyes widened when the name was mentioned and gave Roxas a confused frown. "Yeah… how do you know that?"

The younger blond smacked his forehead with his hand and gave a low groan as he sank into his mother's side. "That guy used to bully me and friends back in California before he suddenly moved after graduating a couple of years ago." Roxas gave another groan and tried to hide himself between his mother and the island. "I can't believe we followed him here…"

Axel found his love obsession's acts amusing and snickered while Zell looked confused as hell. Laura, though, did not take this information lightly and had a stern look in her eyes. The goth noticed the look and immediately quieted down; never mess with mothers when they're angry, especially when it has to deal with their babies problems… he learned that the hard way.

"Are you talking about that one young man who gave you that black eye and bloody nose all because you accidentally bumped into him?" Laura almost growled when her son nodded, who was almost hesitant to do so after seeing his mother like this. "If I ever see him I'm gonna bop him one!"

Roxas rolled his eyes at his mother's antics from where he stood, his back pressed against her front. "No one's going to hurt anyone, mom. I'm sure he's matured enough over the last couple of years." He gave a reassuring smile towards Axel, who had a look of pure murder after hearing what Laura had just said. "You can't solve problems with violence, that's probably why the world is the way it is." He earned a snort from Laura, who didn't believe in the 'no violence' policy when it came to her child's safety.

Zell, however, was still stuck on the whole Seifer thing and couldn't help but ask, "Seifer was a bully?" He had a look of disbelief, trying to wrap his head around the thought that this other blond had known the guy he was attracted to longer than he had. "I never would have thought that by the way he acted towards me and around other people. He did annoy the hell out some people that he didn't like, but he was a fairly nice guy."

"Hearing you say that seems unbelievable," Roxas murmured. "He made my junior high years a living hell. But I guess I'll take your word for it for now." He hummed as he scratched around his Adam apple. "Do you know what happened to him?"

The older blond shook his head. "Nope. After what happened, he just disappeared. Sometimes I think I see him and turn back to look only to see that it was most likely my imagination." He looked down towards his arms that were still crossed over the counter and gave a sad sigh. "But I hope I can see him again someday."

Giving a small smile to his newly made friend, Axel said, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure you will."

Zell gave a thankful grin before he grimaced and began rolling his left shoulder and rubbing a spot over his shoulder blade. "I hope so; it would be nice to see if whatever we had back then could continue." He stopped rolling his shoulder so he could move it forward, moving the shoulder blade out of the way for his questing fingers. "Damn knot."

Roxas' ears perked up at that and moved out from his mother's safety. "I could help; I'm very good at taking care of knots." He then ordered the taller blond to take off his shirt and sit on the ground, causing the other to give him a questionable frown, but obeyed anyways. Roxas sat down on the couch with Zell sitting in front of him on the carpet, sneaky fingers running along where the other said the knot was supposed to be. The small blond found it and began to put pressure on it, making the other wince.

A hint of jealousy welled up inside Axel at seeing Roxas' hands on another, but he smashed it down when he remembered that his love interest was only helping out someone in need. Besides, why let a talent like that go to waste on one person? And by the time Roxas was finished, Cid and Devon were coming back downstairs from the man's den. At the sight of seeing Roxas going to work on Zell's back had Cid running over towards them in seconds, pushing the other away.

"Dad, what the hell? I wasn't done!" the young blond cried out at his father's actions, displeasure showing on his face. "Have you ever heard of patience?"

"Hell no! Have you ever heard of the saying that yer elders come first?" Cid spat right back with a playful smile. "Now get to work on getting rid of these here knots for yer old man."

Roxas rolled his eyes and began to rub his father's back with a small humph; making sure that he wasn't gentle about it either. Axel was laughing at the small grunts of pain the older man was making, finding the scene rather comical. Zell was beside him laughing as well, hoping that Roxas would continue to be mean to his father for shoving him aside rather rudely earlier. Laura, who was still in the kitchen, was shaking her head with a large grin while she began preparations for dinner; Devon beside his wife while watching his friend and step son banter back and forth about Roxas being too forceful.

All the while, Laura kept glancing back over to Axel, watching him watch her son fondly, a glint in his eyes that was most likely adoration for the small blond. She quickly glanced away when Axel glanced to his side when he felt someone was watching him. But, a few moments later, they both had to look back towards the others after Roxas gave a small shout. They burst out laughing when they saw that Cid and Zell had begun a wrestling match, Cid being the one who looked like was going to win before Zell did some fancy move and flipped them over, holding the older man down until he gave in.

"Damn," Cid hissed as he sat up, rolling his neck from side to side. "Where in the hell did you learn those moves?"

"Ten years of street fighting lessons, three years of boxing, and four years of wrestling can teach you a lot of things," Zell replied as he began to hop from foot to foot while shooting out jabs and uppercuts to help calm his heart back down. "The street fighting lessons I got from my dad and I don't even know where he comes up with some of the moves." He slowly stopped what he was doing and slouched down on the ground next to Cid, who suddenly began to wrestle him to the ground again.

"I bet you can't beat me this time!" the older blond cried out and got the younger boy into a head lock that Zell quickly squeezed out of in no time, pinning Cid on the ground again. "Or maybe you can…"

Standing up while panting, Zell moved away from the older man and sat down next to Roxas, hoping it was safer. It didn't help though, especially when Roxas was suddenly pulled off the couch and pinned on the floor by Cid, receiving raspberries on his sensitive neck, his father's bristly chin making it even more ticklish. From Axel's point of few, all he could see was Roxas' feet kicking up and down as he tried to wiggle away, crying out for help while he laughed. It was time for someone to save the day…

And that someone so happened to be Devon, who tackled his friend off of Roxas and onto the floor, getting him into a head lock with his legs wrapped Cid's to keep him in place, only letting him go when the blond man begged.

Roxas would have cheered, but he was too busy catching his breath and giving Axel a small glare. The redhead gave a small 'what did I do?' look that the young blond promptly ignored. Zell too was panting from laughing so hard, glad that his mom allowed him to stay here for the day. His arm was suddenly lightly pushed by Cid, who was giving an appreciative look like a father would give a son.

"You're a pretty good wrestler and a rather strong fellow," the old blond stated proudly, shaking Zell's hand. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to shower a day's worth of work off." He kissed his ex-wife's forehead goodbye as a friendly gesture, doing the same to Roxas while shaking Axel's hand and giving Devon a one armed hug before leaving just as Sora and Riku walked in.

The little brunette was beside Roxas in seconds. "Roxas, you'll never believe what happened today…" and thus began Sora's explanation of how he saw two adult eagles with a baby down by the beach, all three of them seated on a washed up log, going into detail about what they looked like while Riku stood by Axel, both of the older boys staring in amusement at their love interests.

LINE-BREAK

Roxas yawned from where he lay, all tuckered out from today's earlier events. Zell had left right before dinner and Axel had to go fill in for someone in janitorial quite suddenly, pissing the redhead off. Leon had dropped by sometime after dinner to ask for the blond's advice about the Nanaki situation; the brunette had yet to tell his light, brown haired roommate his feelings. This time Leon was asking on how he should go about asking, but all Roxas could tell him was to just go with his heart, do whatever he seemed fit. Then after that, the plans for tomorrow's lunch was all settled and Leon made sure he asked Cid to give him the day off so he could go as well.

Now in bed, with the sun now gone, but not completely dark like it once was when he first got here, Roxas was able to lay down and relax into sleep; brushing aside all his worries to help ease is mind into unconsciousness. It didn't last, however; there was a small tap at his door before it opened, Sora walking in with his stuffed moogle, a terrified look on his face. Knowing Sora, the brunette most likely had fallen asleep for about ten minutes before waking up from a nightmare and in need of comfort.

Sora didn't even wait for his older brother's permission and lifted the covers up so he could slide in between the wall and Roxas, snuggling up to the blond. Roxas let him, a small smile on his lips as he grasped the shaking hand that was draped over his waist. The comforting gesture seemed to calm the younger boy, Sora falling back to sleep within minutes. The blond too soon fell asleep after turning towards his brother, listening to his breathing and small squeaky snores from a full nose.

LINE-BREAK

It was about 11:30 in the morning when Laura quietly made her way into Roxas' room, cooing at the sight of her two sons curled up together on the blond's bed. Immediately, she knew that Sora had a bad dream last night and went to Roxas for comfort, who happily gave it. She gently shook them awake before running her fingers through their hair as they slowly came back from dream land. Sora was the first to become fully awake, sitting up and yawning before stretching with a groan and slid out of bed to go do his business.

It took longer for Roxas to slip out from his dreams, trying to stay asleep a little longer. The hand in his hair felt good, causing him to fall back into a deep sleep until it suddenly left. He was jerked awake though when something wet licked up the side of his cheek. Roxas sat up with a jerk, wiping his cheek while glaring at a certain redhead that was sitting where his mom once stood. Axel grinned and quickly jumped away from the blond's angry fist.

"Rise and shine, blondy!" Axel exclaimed a little too happily for Roxas.

The blond was tired, he kept waking up every two hours last night and it took him a while to fall back to sleep. All Roxas wanted to do was fall back to sleep for a few more hours, but the redhead seemed like he wasn't going to let that happen and pulled the younger boy off the bed. Roxas fell to the floor with a loud thump, his legs tangled up in his comforter so it took him awhile to get up and chase after Axel. He did, however, tackle the goth to the ground once he was free, bringing them both to the floor behind the couch.

Riku's head poked over the top of it to see what happened and snickered as he watched Axel get pinned to the ground by an angry Roxas. It didn't last though since the blond was too tired and was easily pressed against the floor. But Roxas didn't struggle and let himself be pinned to the ground, hoping Axel would get off soon. This had Axel concerned for the blond since Roxas usually fought back instead of letting himself lose right off the bat. The redhead did get off, but he gave the other a questioning gaze which Roxas promptly ignored.

"You look awfully tired, sweetie," Laura stated with a hint of concern for her son, especially when Roxas continued to lay where he was. She quickly went over to him to make sure he was alright, setting the back of her hand on top of the blond's forehead, but it wasn't considerable warm. "Is something wrong?"

Roxas sat up while yawning, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "No, just tired. Haven't been getting enough sleep with all this daylight we've been getting. I think I need some darker curtains. And I kept waking up last night." He crawled into his mother's lap and let her hold him as if he was a small child, falling back asleep on her.

Laura smiled worriedly down at her child while she rubbed his back and his hair. Axel took her burden and carried the blond back upstairs where he could sleep for a couple more hours, only waking up once for a few seconds before going right back to sleep while being put to bed. The redhead made sure that Roxas was deep in sleep before leaving to go back downstairs.

The planned family lunch would have to wait until dinner time.

LINE-BREAK

It was sometime after three when Axel went to check on his tired friend just in time to see Roxas slip out of bed and stride over to him. The younger boy took in a sharp breath when he finally noticed Axel standing in front of him, holding back a yelp. Blue eyes blinked tiredly, but they seemed livelier than they did earlier this morning, and Roxas moved around the goth to go downstairs and go to the bathroom, not noticing the many people in the living room.

When he came back out did he notice everyone (Laura, Devon, Cid, Shera, Leon, Ventus, Sora, Terra, Vanitas, Demyx, Zexion, and Riku) all gathered in the living room, the adults sitting on the couch while the teenagers stood or sat on the floor. No one had yet to notice him and he quickly made his way back up to his room to get dressed, pushing Axel out of his room for some privacy.

Five minutes later, Roxas came back out dressed in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a faded green t-shirt with the Hot Topic logo in the back; a pair of black and white stripped socks adorned his feet. Axel followed him back down the stairs and watched as the blond jumped over the back of the couch to sit between Devon and Laura, leaning against the brunette woman. Roxas was certainly a momma's boy and wasn't afraid to show it.

"Well look who's finally up," Laura murmured, kissing the top of his blond spikes just as Ven jumped onto his twin with a worried pout.

"When I heard that you were still sleeping when I came over, I was so worried!" the blond clone of Roxas hugged his twin while sitting in his lap. He pulled away to give Roxas a small smile to show that he was no longer worried. "Mom told me what happened and I guess it's to be expected since you've only been here a month. Same thing happened to me." Ventus jumped off of his brother's lap to sit back down next to his boyfriend.

"So, are we still going out to eat?" Roxas asked his mother, hoping he hadn't ruined everyone's fun.

Laura nodded. "Of course, we just decided to go out for dinner instead to let you have your sleep."

"Sorry…" the older twin murmured, disappointed in himself.

Cid snorted. "Don't worry about it; it's mostly my fault anyway. I forgot someone had made an appointment today to have their oil changed. It was pretty fast but it wasn't until two and I had to take a shower because some of the oil had spilled on me. Just gave you a reason to sleep in longer."

Roxas smiled at his dad shyly, looking away only to catch eyes with Axel. The redhead gave a smirk that had the blond's smile grow larger, a funny feeling welling up inside him that he gladly disregarded since he couldn't quite understand it and it made him feel uncomfortable, but happy at the same time. The blond turned away from the redhead with a confused look in his eye, a small frown that quickly disappeared so as to not worry anyone.

However, nothing can escape Zexion's eyes.

The slate haired young adult saw the look of confusion and smirked softly to himself at what Roxas was most likely confused about. Everyone else was too busy talking to each other to notice, but Zexion wasn't talking to anyone nor was anyone talking to him (he was more of a listener). He said nothing and glanced away and pretended to look as if he was listening in on Demyx's and Vanitas conversation when Roxas turned towards him.

When the blond glanced away because of his mother asking him a question, Zexion made sure to give Axel a knowing smirk over Roxas' head, causing the goth to become confused at what the look was for. Shrugging, the slate haired boy made his way over to the bathroom, patting the redhead's shoulder when he passed him.

All the laughing and talking stopped suddenly, though, when Vanitas started hacking and coughing, eyes watering. He held up a finger for everyone to wait a moment before he could explain what happened, pausing a few times before giving another cough. When he finally calmed down and wiped away his tears and nose, he said, "Just swallowed some spit down the wrong tube."

Terra rolled his eyes beside him and finished what he was saying to Leon, everyone's conversations starting back up again.

In the middle of it all, Zexion just watched with a continuous smirk.

* * *

**Lou-pie: I don't like this chapter much, I think it could have gone better. We need some action here people! Hmm, maybe someone should get terrible sick or some should get into an accident. Anyways, sorry about the wait, job searching in Alaska is very hard, especially when you're new at it, and I just finished painting my room and my family bought a ferret last week so I've been spending a lot of time with her. I don't know how long the next the chapter is going to take, but at the rate I'm going… it's gonna be a while. Review and let me know if I should continue. **

**Oh yeah, I have accidentally changed Axel's last name, I am sorry. I went back to see if I had already gave him a last name but couldn't see that I had. If I have, let me know so I can correct it.**


	8. Message

Hello ZacksmexyFair fans, I am a friend of ZsF and she wanted me to tell you fans that she can no longer write stories. She won't let me go into detail on why except that she was in an accident that I too can not go into detail. But what I can tell you is that if anyone would like to adopt and finish her stories, please do so. She can't tell you how her stories end and such because she always winged it and hoped it turned out to be a good story. Sorry I couldn't tell you guys sooner, I had my hands full and was finally able to get on her account. So, please, someone, pick up where she left off on some of stories if you can.


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